Gus MacPherson has said that the vacant Scotland manager’s position offers an opportunity as well as a challenge for whoever is appointed. The St Mirren boss also said the SFA should be prepared to look abroad to get the right man.

“It’s a challenge to whoever is offered the job, who decides to take that on,” he said.

“It’s been proven in the past that it can be a good job for somebody, it’s international football.”

Most of the names linked with the job so far have been Scottish with many fans against the idea of appointing a non-Scot. However, MacPherson said the SFA should not consider nationality when searching for the next manager.

“Not at all,” he insisted.

“It’s the best man that’s for that job. We’ve seen other countries in international football go outwith their nationality.

“It should hold no boundaries, it’s just got to be about getting the best out of a group of players who are more than capable of getting results at that level.”

The Saints manager also said that the trick to success at international level was to maintain good standards. Graeme Souness has said that Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson would struggle to attain success with the current group of players but MacPherson said the challenge was to get the best out of the players in every match.

“It would still be a difficult job,” he admitted.

“[Under] people like Alex McLeish, Walter Smith, even George Burley we had good performances out of that group of players. The players are capable, I’ve said it previously, it’s all about standards and maintaining a level of performance that is capable of getting results.”

“From club or international level if you’ve set a standard, you should be able to maintain that, that’s the hardest bit in football. You’ll all have inconsistencies but every manager is striving for a level of consistency that you can get results with.”