Alex McLeish is the odds-on favourite to become the next permanent Rangers manager following a huge shift in the bookmakers’ prices.
SkyBet priced McLeish, 58, as the new frontrunner at 8/11 on Monday night as he displaced long-running hot contender Derek McInnes in the betting race to take over the Ibrox dugout.
Aberdeen manager McInnes, 46, is now second favourite (2/1) after his odds drifted markedly from last week.
Bet Victor priced McLeish as a 25/1 rank outsider just a week ago, when McInnes was the huge favourite at 1/3.
OPINION
Rangers’ managerial search is taking on excruciating proportions for their huge fanbase. With the possibility growing that they are unwilling or unable to pay the £800,000 compensation needed to prise McInnes from Pittodrie, 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.