McLeish tipped to succeed Advocaat

Alex McLeish could probably have sold tickets for his routine pre-match press conference today. The media scrum at Easter Road will have nothing to do with the Hibernian manager's dry wit. However, a bigger stage may be beckoning.

Speculation that McLeish is being tipped to take over the reins at Rangers from Dick Advocaat would ensure greater scrutiny than usual, but the fact that he is crossing Ibrox's threshold tomorrow night, when he takes the Edinburgh club there for a Scottish Premier League match, merely adds spice to the occasion.

Which dug-out will McLeish be heading to? Home or away? Both Rangers and Hibernian stayed quiet yesterday on reports that McLeish, 42, is poised to inherit the Rangers job if Advocaat moves upstairs to become technical director.

Hibernian insisted they had not been contacted by Rangers about their manager, for whom they would demand heavy compensation if they did allow him to head along the M8. Hibernian tied McLeish to a new contract, and a handsome £400,000 salary, in the summer after West Ham had tried to interest him in a move to Upton Park.

Just 18 months ago, Hibernian were unable to resist the temptation to cash in on Kenny Miller when Rangers offered £2m for the Scotland player. However, they would feel great anxiety about allowing McLeish to make the same journey. With the money McLeish received for Miller, he bought five modestly priced players and fashioned a side which offered a decent challenge to Celtic's omnipotence last season, only tailing off into third place in the SPL in the dying weeks of the season.

Those credentials caught Rangers' eye. Advocaat, who is keen to remain in a senior role at the club he joined three-and-a-half years ago, has been fulsome in his praise of the challenge McLeish has presented him on the pitch, while the Rangers chairman, David Murray, may also be keen to seize the chance of injecting a Scottish influence at Ibrox again.