Maurice Malpas is so heavily odds on that the bookies probably won't take bets on him taking charge. It is no secret that he would like to move into a management role in his own right eventually and seems to be highly rated in football circles. He is already in charge of the Scotland U21 side and is making the best of a hard job there. He would be the logical choice given he is already at the club and familiar with the players but on the other hand could it be better to have a complete change when we have the chance? Malpas would be a good, safe appointment and there would be few complaints from the stands.

Craig Levein was never popular with Motherwell fans when he was a player and he didn't do much to redress that as a manager. However, few would deny he did an excellent job in making Hearts the undisputed ‘best of the rest' before Romanov's cash arrived. Indeed, he put up with budget cuts so he'd be more than used to dealing with the financial constraints we'd inevitably impose on him. He failed in Leicester but one bad job does not necessarily mean he should be written off forever. He would bring a certain arrogance to the club which could prove useful in the attempted transformation from mid-table mediocrity to Euro challengers but he would get short shrift if things started to go wrong early in his reign.

Bobby Williamson would be an utterly uninspiring candidate at first glance but he deserves more consideration. Football is about results not performance and his efforts with Kilmarnock for years (including winning the cup) are noteworthy in the extreme. His tenure at Hibs seemed to be an unmitigated failure but he was in charge of the set up that produced a lot of their good kids even if he couldn't get the first team results quite right. Plymouth was a bit of a disaster for him but he will no doubt be looking to get back into the game somewhere and he'd view us as the perfect club to give him that chance. Given the tendency of his sides to bore the pants off everyone if Bobby got the job he'd be another one who only have a few months to get it right and the fans would greet his appointment with a collective groan.

Stuart Baxter gets mentioned in relation to every SPL vacancy so it would be remiss not to include him here. He has recently rejoined Vissel Kobe in Japan, a team he had previously guided into the top flight J-League and has also led AIK Solna to the Swedish title and Champions League football. South Africa proved a challenge to far as they missed the World Cup under his stewardship but he is a dedicated manager and would be a tough competitor in Scotland. However, given no other job here has tempted him, there is little to suggest we will either. The complete change factor may work in his favour but he would, fairly or otherwise, be regarded as a non-entity by many of our fans.

Luc Nijholt would be a very popular choice amongst the fans and he has previously voiced a desire to manage us. Whether this would be a smart move or just a quick way of pleasing the fans with a former favourite would remain to be seen. He has been doing coaching courses over in the Netherlands though and it's generally accepted that they know their football over there! It's also questionable how much he's been keeping up with Scottish football although that could be as much of a positive as a negative.

So, there you have it. Or are there others who deserve a mention? Surely there will be no dramatic return for Philliben, Krivocapic or Coyne and it is too early for Leitch after about twenty minutes in management at Ross County! There is one other candidate though. He has played and succeeded at the highest level and has the medals to prove his success. International caps are not in short supply either and he has large handful of managerial medals too. Could the future, once more, be ginger…?