THE TIDE is turning in the search for Scotland's next manager and it threatens to leave Graeme Souness and Kenny Dalglish washed up. Senior figures within the SFA are not convinced that either of the former Scotland international players has the managerial track record to justify the high annual salary they would demand to take over from Alex McLeish, and neither of them is among the frontrunners despite being linked with the job.

Mark McGhee is the favourite although Tommy Burns, Billy Davies and Craig Levein are also close to the profile of manager wanted by the men in charge at Hampden. Joe Jordan and John Collins also have admirers within the SFA's 10-man board.

An appointment is expected to be made next month and among the numerous attractions for the new man could be a spring friendly against Argentina. The prospect of Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez, Hernan Crespo and Juan Roman Riquelme appearing at Hampden on February 6 will be realised if the SFA can successfully conclude negotiations with agents representing the Argentine FA.

The two-time world champions will seek an appearance fee of around £300,000 but in return for that they would guarantee that their star names would play, injuries permitting, and the match would be a certain 52,000 sell-out.

Argentina won 3-1 at Hampden in 1979 when 18-year-old Diego Maradona scored on his international debut - the shirt he wore that day is in the SFA's museum in Hampden - while a Stewart McKimmie goal meant Scotland defeated the then reigning World Cup holders on their only other visit to Glasgow in 1990.

The arrival of football royalty such as Argentina would maintain the sense of momentum and interest which surrounds the national side at the moment and so would the prospect of a visit to the new Wembley in May. SFA chief executive Gordon Smith intends to continue negotiations with his counterparts at the Football Association this week with a view to Scotland returning to Wembley for the first time in eight years, with a match possibly taking place on Wednesday, May 28.

"I should be speaking again with the FA this week to see if there's a possibility of an international at the end of the season," said Smith. "Part of the discussion with England would be about a built-in financial arrangement for ourselves for playing at Wembley, or else an agreement that they get all the money from playing at Wembley and then play us at Hampden within a couple of years when we would keep all the money."

Neither Smith nor SFA president George Peat would give much away about the search for McLeish's successor while they were in Amsterdam for Friday's meeting to thrash out the dates for the World Cup qualifiers, but the process will officially begin this week.

Smith, Peat, and vice-presidents Campbell Ogilvie and Alan McRae will meet on Thursday to formally discuss the contenders and whittle off the also-rans. They four of them will make a recommendation to the full board, probably after the candidates have been interviewed.

McGhee leads the pack at the moment and has had heavyweight endorsements from McLeish and Celtic manager Gordon Strachan. It is also to his advantage that some senior SFA figures like the idea of someone with a Celtic background occupying the job given the prominence Walter Smith, McLeish and Gordon Smith - all ex-Rangers men - have had within the governing body recently. Burns and, to a lesser extent, Jordan also meet that criterion.

"We haven't sat down to discuss it together so we will start the process during the week," said Peat. "I would think the four of us will come up with a recommendation of maybe two names or maybe one, depending on whether we feel one candidate is way ahead of the others.

"At the moment we have a completely open mind. The last twice we were looking for a manager we had identified favourites Smith and McLeish but at this stage we haven't reached that point. We haven't got to the point of ruling out any type' either.

"I can think of half a dozen names that people have thrown about but I wouldn't comment about any of them. The length of the next manager's contract will depend on the candidate, some will just want a couple of years while others may want four. But even when a contract is there you saw what happened with Walter and Alex."

At Thursday's meeting Billy Stark is likely to be named as Scotland's new full-time under-21 manager, although Maurice Malpas and two other contenders are still in with a chance. The SFA decided the position was totally independent of the senior manager's job and there would be no point in delaying the appointment until the main position had been filled, which could be several more weeks.

Chief executive Smith was entitled to feel reasonably satisfied with his first exposure to the world of World Cup politics as he led the SFA delegation which negotiated an acceptable set of dates for the World Cup qualifiers.

The tone of the campaign to reach the 2010 finals in South Africa will be set by the opening two results, away to Macedonia and Iceland on September 6 and 10 respectively. Four or six points from those and the new manager is off and running; fewer and it will feel as if he has been shot by the starting pistol.

Smith was pleased: "It may look a bit tricky - two away games first - but they were the lower seeds so that's why we wanted to try and get those two away. It is three of the last four games at home.

"You are hoping that you have done well up to that point and are challenging. We fought hard but the biggest compromise - and we've glad we've done it - was to get Norway away in August.

"We wanted to avoid June for that one. I hope the clubs at home are happy because while I know it could be in the middle of the Champions League qualifiers they must think that is better than players being kept in training for another three weeks to play in June after the season has finished. June 10 was the scheduled date originally but that could be a month after our season finishes.

"I was laughing at the meeting because the Dutch were saying they had to travel to Glasgow for the last game. I said that's okay, we'll have qualified by then anyway, it will be a meaningless game'."

Scotland's route to the World Cup: Sat September 6, A v Macedonia; Wed September 10, A v Iceland; Sat October 11, H v Norway; Sat March 28, A v Holland; Wed April 1, H v Iceland; Wed August 19, A v Norway; Sat September 5, H v Macedonia; Wed September 9, H v Holland. Group winners qualify automatically, eight of the nine group runners-up go into two-legged play-offs on October 10 and 14, 2009.