The Scottish Football Association will waste little time in appointing a replacement for national manager Alex McLeish, who resigned yesterday to take up the position left vacant by Steve Bruce at Birmingham City.
A meeting of the SFA board at Hampden Park this morning, initially arranged to discuss the approach made on Monday by the St Andrew's club for McLeish's services, will now address the way ahead after the 48-year-old ended his tenure after 10 months.
"We hope to have someone in place by January at the latest," said the SFA's chief executive, Gordon Smith, last night. "We will start the hunt for a manager immediately. I've already had people phoning me to declare an interest."
Smith added that the SFA will resume talks today with Birmingham over compensation for McLeish. An initial offer of £750,000 (€1.046 million) has been rejected by the SFA, who are seeking closer to £1 million (€1.4 million).
"We hope to have that sorted by the end of the week," Smith added.
Gary McAllister and Billy Davies have been installed as the bookmakers' early favourites, largely on account of their instant availability.
"I'm very open to listen to anything that is offered or put on the table," said Davies, sacked by Derby County two days ago. However, the SFA will look for stability so a more experienced appointment is likely.
McLeish will be formally introduced in Birmingham this morning, after his representative travelled to London on Monday night to agree terms on a three-year contract, understood to be worth in the region of £30,000 (€42,000 a week).
The former Motherwell, Hibernian and Rangers manager replaces Bruce, who has moved to Wigan Athletic. McLeish will resume city rivalries with Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill, once the manager of Celtic.
Birmingham yesterday allowed their caretaker manager Eric Black to join Bruce at the JJB Stadium, clearing the way for McLeish to bring his assistants from the Scotland national set-up, Andy Watson and Roy Aitken, to St Andrew's.
McLeish will take charge of his new team for the first time on Sunday, when Birmingham travel to White Hart Lane to face Tottenham Hotspur.
Paul Jewell has been offered the chance to save Derby County from relegation after the club appeared to cool on the idea of replacing Davies with Paul Ince. Jewell has given Derby the impression he would accept the job and sources close to the former Wigan Athletic manager indicated it was almost a done deal.
Derby chairman Adam Pearsospent yesterday speaking to candidates and, though impressed by Ince, Jewell's greater experience has given him the edge. Coventry City boss Iain Dowie and Geraint Williams, a former Derby player now in charge of Colchester, had also come under consideration. Jewell was understood to be meeting Pearson last night.
His appointment would represent a coup for Pearson after the sacking of Davies, a decision criticised yesterday by club captain Matt Oakley. Ince will be dismayed if he is to miss out on the chance to leave Milton Keynes Dons to join the Premier League's bottom club, having been led to believe he was the favourite for the job.
That was certainly the case after Pearson summoned Davies on Monday - but primarily because Derby's directors were unconvinced at the timethey would be able to land Jewell.
Extensive talks yesterday revealed that Jewell was more inclined to accept the position than Pearson had believed.
"I'm a big Billy Davies fan and I think he should have stayed," said Oakley. "Billy knows the results aren't good enough. As captain I know they're not good enough but sometimes you need to give people time."
Everton boss David Moyes was last night charged by the FA with questioning the integrity of referee Mark Clattenberg, who took charge of the recent Liverpool derby, won in controversial circumstances by Rafael Benitez's side.
Moyes implied Clattenberg had been over friendly with Liverpool players when the referee appeared to change a yellow card to red for Tony Hibbert on the advice of Steven Gerrard, refused to dismiss Dirk Kuyt for a two-footed lunge on Phil Neville and ignored Everton appeals for a stoppage-time penalty when Jamie Carragher wrestled Joleon Lescott to the ground.
Moyes asked afterwards: "Didn't he [ Clattenberg] go to Asia with Liverpool for the Asian Cup this summer?"
