Michael O’Neill is the name of the day to distract Sevco fans from the corporate failure to recruit a new manager.
On Friday night the Ibrox club virtually gave up on the campaign to get Derek McInnes to resign from Aberdeen and revealed that they would assess fresh applications this week.
As soon as any job crops up that suits them Alex McLeish and Billy Davies will be on the scene with clubs instantly aware of the calibre of applicant that they can consider. As time goes on the quality of applicant tends to reduce.
With their big club delusion Sevco are in an especially difficult situation. While they talk big, reality is a little different with no real transfer budget available and a basic salary heavily incentivised towards the highly unlikely possibility of reaching the Champions League group stage.
After Northern Ireland’s exit from the World Cup to Switzerland O’Neill is in the spotlight. Taking their cue from the bookies in the most volatile market of all the odds on the former Hibs and Dundee United midfielder have been trimmed prompting the inevitable stories about O’Neill entering the fray.
Should O’Neill, McInnes, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Alan Pardew ever get around the negotiating table they’ll be in for the fright of their life.
With a copy of the club’s recently published accounts they’ll be able to ask some detailed questions to blow away the big club spin. How do you stop Celtic with a squad built on the proceeds of selling Carlos Pena?
Sevco’s next two matches are at home to Hamilton and away to Dundee, if he can avoid disaster the job is Grahame Murty’s as Sevco wait for the £4m investment from penniless Dave King and the outcome from the Court of Session concerning King’s concert party take-over in 2015.