Ardiles is not the man

I was going to blog today on the ridiculous notion that Ossie Ardiles could be a viable candidate for the Caley job, not least because he has been fired more often than the cannon Edinburgh use at Hogmanay, but Graham Spiers has already done it for me in today's Times, which is fine by me. I'm worried that he might be right about the likelihood of TB taking the post as well. Still, if Archie Knox ends up being the man, I can sleep easy.

It has been daft, though, the number of names being touted. Journalists wil do anything to fill column inches. It's not just Ardiles whose name has come out of nowhere - I'm hearing those of Alex Rae, Duncan Shearer and Neale Cooper put forward, none of whom have SPL experience and all of whom have failed in their highest profile managerial posts, but because they live slightly to the North of Glasgow and Edinburgh they are all considered by the press to be candidates! Ditto Derek McInnes, despite the fact that we have not approached St. J and we couldn't afford to pay some compo, they have said they would not let him go, and there is no realistic reason why he would leave a side homing in on promotion already. It would be like a U-boat captain leaving his submarine to join the crew of a ship that has been torpedoed and is sinking fast.

Anyway, the current goss is that Butcher, Robbo and Knox, plus A.N. other, will be on the shortlist. And the lucky winner will get a nice easy introduction - Celtic at home a week on Sunday. And then the Great Escape is off and running - though I wish Steve McQueen was on our side as well.

L.