I see from today's Sunday Herald that Luc Nijholt has said that he knows he is a candidate and will come for an interview if asked. For me this means one of three things; 1. The quote is a few days out of date as we appear to have started the interview process 2. Nijholt will not be getting an interview or 3. We are not as far along the interview/selection process as we might have hoped. My gut instinct is telling me number 2, Nijholt will not be in the frame. Which is a bit sad really because I think he was definitely one of the candidate who would have brought something new and fresh to the table.
Lobey Dosser stated on the 'Latest Rumour' thread (which thread are we supposed to be using??) that he felt that he understood that Sanchez was top of the list by some distance. I've certainly got the impression from the forum that since Sanchez's name came up, a lot of people seem convinced that he's the best candidate for the job. I've not seen any evidence that John Boyle thinks that (he is playing his cards very close to his chest, so I don't know how anyone could definitively say who is leading the race). Personally I'm not sure he's the best man for the job, but he's certainly a good candidate.
Given that Nijholt appears out of the running to me, my prefered candidate by some distance would be Gary McAllister. Not because of his previous ties to the club. In our financial situation we're going to be relying on loan deals from bigger clubs and bosmans from the english lower leagues. For me, McAllister has the best group of contacts for the former and the best first hand knowledge for the latter. We don;t really have time for a new manager to go and have a look at players he might be interested in. I also think in our predominantly Scottish squad, he would immediately command respect. Sanchez would not horrify me. Staunton would make me apprehensive. McAllister would excite me...