Mcleish welcomes ‘football guy’ to SFA

Scotland manager Alex Mcleish is happy to have a “football guy” in Ian Maxwell as his new boss.

Mcleish joked that the SFA chief executive’s first job can be to tell clubs which players are going on the post-season tour of South and Central America.

Partick Thistle managing director Maxwell was named as the SFA’S choice to succeed Stewart Regan on Monday.

The 42-year-old has served on the boards of the governing body and the Scottish Professional Football League during a seven-year stint running off-field affairs at Thistle.

But he is well-versed in on-field matters too after a playing career at Queen’s Park, Ross County, St Johnstone, St Mirren and the Jags.

Mcleish, who was launching the latest search for nominations for the Scottish football hall of fame, said: “I’m looking forward to working with Ian Maxwell. He’s a football guy, he has come through the ranks.

“He brings with him financial expertise as well as chief executive experience also. The fact that he knows the game, that has got to be a bonus.

“He can speak to the clubs now. I can rest easy in terms of picking the squad – I will get Ian to talk to them all.”

Mcleish has made tentative moves to alerting clubs over the selection of players for games against Peru and Mexico in late May and early June.

He said: “I get it when managers speak about young players being overloaded and we need to be careful.”

Alex Mcleish: Talks over post-season tour.