Alex McLeish out of the running for Scotland job

Alex McLeish (Aston Villa, June 17 2011 - May 14 2012) The appointment of McLeish just five days after leaving Villa's arch-rivals Birmingham was greeted with mass protests and anti-McLeish graffiti outside the ground. A poor start to the seas (GETTY IMAGES)

Alex McLeish has ruled himself out of the running to return to the Scotland manager's job but has thrown his weight behind the appointment of Gordon Strachan.

The Scottish Football Association board yesterday dismissed Craig Levein as national team boss "primarily due to the disappointing results in the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 Qualifiers".

They sit bottom of Group A with just two points from four fixtures but McLeish has no interest in becoming Scotland boss once again, having coached the side in 2007 before leaving to take charge of Birmingham in the same year.

McLeish, out of a job since being sacked at Aston Villa at the end of last season, told talkSPORT: "I left the national team to take up club football.

"I felt I was missing the day-to-day stuff. I wouldn't like to be unfair to Scotland fans in terms of coming back to the job and being a hypocrite.

"I don't want to come out and say I don't want the Scotland job, I'd never want to say that. But I do feel I've still got some time left in club football and that's what I want to focus on.

"There's nothing really pending, I had to have break after Aston Villa and now I've got itchy feet again."

Strachan has emerged as one of the favourites to succeed Levein and McLeish believes it would be a shrewd appointment.

"Gordon looks a pretty good choice to me," McLeish added.

"He's had great success at club level with Celtic. Whether he wants to come away from his TV role, because he's very good at that, is a big decision for him to make."

PA