MARK McGHEE recommended Alex McLeish today to be considered for a return as Scotland manager.

The Scottish Football Association will continue their search for a new national team boss after Michael O’Neill decided today to stay with Northern Ireland.

O’Neill said that he had “given the matter a great deal of thought and consideration,” but ultimately decided that despite it being  “a huge honour to be offered the position, I do not feel that this is the right opportunity for me at this moment in my career.”

McGhee was assistant to Gordon Strachan, who departed following the failed 2018 World Cup campaign, and is a former Aberdeen teammate of McLeish, who was Scotland boss during the Euro 2008 qualifiers in 2007 before leaving for Birmingham City.

McLeish joins Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes and Kilmarnock’s Steve Clarke among bookmakers’ favourites and McGhee said: “I know how much Alex would love to do the job and I know how well qualified Alex is for the job given his experience in it already.

“I don’t see any reason why he couldn’t be seriously considered, he is ready and waiting, have boots will travel.

“The others come into it but they are in jobs, that’s the difficult thing.

“Derek McInnes has [gone] through this process with several other clubs and declined and stayed at Aberdeen.

“Whether the Scottish job would be too big a draw, I don’t know.

“I suspect it might not at this stage be right for Derek in the sense that he is maybe a little bit too young and he still wants to do something bigger in club football before he goes to a national job.”