ALEX McLEISH said yesterday that he “loved every minute” of being Scotland manager after declaring himself open to a second spell at the helm.

McLeish led Scotland to victory over France in Paris before a late defeat by Italy saw them miss out on a place in Euro 2008.

The 58-year-old quit to move to Birmingham in the English Premier League after 10 months and would not turn down a second chance.

“I could never rule the Scotland job out,” the former Rangers and Motherwell manager said.

“Obviously I’m not in a job now so people might think it would be easier for me to take the job, and of course it would be. I don’t have any issues except just saying: ‘Yes, I’d love to do that’.

“But there’s a lot of good candidates and they have put big Malky [Mackay] in charge for the next friendly while they deliberate.”

The Scottish Football Association is finalising its recruitment process this week while Mackay plans for the visit of the Netherlands on November 9.

McLeish’s name has been high on bookmakers’ lists given the feelgood factor of much of his time at the helm, which saw Scotland embark on a four-match winning run before defeats by Georgia and Italy denied them a finals appearance.

“We had a good spell. It was a short spell, and I loved every minute of it,” said McLeish.

“At the time I felt I was a bit young to be going into international management, but there was a wee trend then — [Marco] van Basten was in charge of the Netherlands and [Jurgen] Klinsmann was on the scene with Germany.

“You think when you get the call you would say: ‘I don’t know, maybe.’ But as soon as I got the call, I said yes and that’s what happens when your country comes calling. It’s difficult to knock it back.”