Gordon Strachan has chosen his former Aberdeen team-mate as his No.2 and the Scottish Football Association are expected to formally announce the appointment on Monday.
Strachan still intends to add a third member to the Scotland coaching team and will approach his preferred candidate in the coming days.
Both McGhee and the No.3 will work for the SFA on a part-time basis.
The Conference League clubs will hold a pre-arranged, mid-season meeting next week and some of them are interested and even supportive of Rangers' potentially applying to join them. Rangers' ultimate aim would be to work their way up from the Conference and through the Football League to the Barclays Premier League. But that prospect seemed improbable when Clarke spoke negatively about the idea yesterday.
