Alex McLeish is the strong odds favourite to become the next permanent Rangers manager following a shift in the bookmakers’ prices.
SkyBet priced McLeish, 58, as the odds-on frontrunner at 1/2 as he soared ahead of Derek McInnes and other candidates in the betting race to take over the Ibrox dugout.
Aberdeen manager McInnes, 46, is now a relatively distant second favourite (5/2) after revealing last Friday that he will be staying at Pittodrie.
McInnes revealed at his press briefing, as quoted by the Scottish Sun, that he had no intentions of leaving Aberdeen following clear the air talks with club chairman Stewart Milne.
Sky Bet priced McLeish as a 25/1 rank outsider two weeks ago, before back him in to 8/11 last week.
McLeish spent five years in charge of Rangers from 2001 to 2006 and won seven major trophies, including the treble in his second season at the helm in 2002-03.
OPINION
Rangers’ managerial search is taking on excruciating proportions for their huge fanbase. With McInnes seemingly intent on staying at Pittodrie after the Glasgow giants failed to pay the £800,o00 compensation needed to secure his services, bookies are now hot on McLeish. The Scot is available, knows Rangers inside out after a successful spell as manager in which he won the treble, and won’t cost a penny in compensation. But appointing the 58-year-old would be a retrograde step. Since leaving Ibrox in 2006, he has had a successful four-year spell at Birmingham and decent short reigns with Scotland and at Belgium outfit Genk, but his reputation suffered through a disastrous year at Aston Villa and his most recent job was at Egyptian side Zamalek last year. McLeish is yesterday’s man, and Rangers need to move forward.