STUART McCALL has been given assurances that he has a cast-iron role within the Scotland coaching set-up whether Rangers want him or not.

 

McCall returned to the training ground with the national squad yesterday morning after taking time away as he tried - and failed - to lead the Ibrox club through the end-of-season Play-Offs into the SPFL Premiership.

He missed the double-header with Northern Ireland and Gibraltar in March, but will be back in his role as number three to Gordon Strachan and Mark McGhee for Friday night's contentious friendly with Qatar at Easter Road and the European Championship qualifying match with the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on June 13.

McGhee is keen to see McCall confirmed as the permanent manager of Rangers, but has hinted that Scotland place such value upon him that they would be eager to share his services should that happen.

"We are all Stuart fans," said McGhee. "We are not going to say anything different than it would be great if he got the (Rangers) job, but there are a whole lot of variables that we are not aware of.

"Whether he is manager of Rangers or not in the future, he will still be doing this job here.

"I think he separates the two and, when he's here, he does the job Gordon requires of him brilliantly.

"I think this week will possibly take his mind off whatever else is going on in the background. It will be good for him.

"Stuart's fine. He has taken part in training. His voice was normal, his smile was there. Stuart's a professional and he's here doing a job for the national team, whatever's going on in his head or in the background.

"We need Stuart back. We felt we were a bit stretched last time in the sense of one of us was working all the time and we weren't able to stand back and look at it.

"In terms of the mix, it works much better with the three than the two."

McGhee understands the sensitivity of McCall's situation in that he remains unclear on his own future at Rangers while the likes of Warburton is confirming publicly that he has spoken to the club.

McCall did state in the wake of the loss to Motherwell in the Play-Off final, though, that he felt he was perfectly suited for the job at Ibrox and McGhee has admitted that he was delighted to see him promote himself for once.

"He is a big boy," said the former Celtic and Aberdeen striker. "He is strong enough to stand up for himself.

"I heard him speaking after the Motherwell game and he spoke brilliantly. He isn't the type to blow his own trumpet, but I agreed with every word he said.

"I'm glad he said it because he was entitled to say it.

"I think, at times, Stuart trusts other people to judge him and give him a fair hearing.

"That doesn't always happen, of course. There are guys who make a bigger case for themselves and end up with jobs maybe Stuart should be getting.

"He has a terrific CV and Stuart will get his turn. If it is not at Ibrox, it will be elsewhere. He is not finished in management, that's for sure."

Reports stating that Rangers were interested in the Portuguese coach Vitor Pereira, currently in charge of Olympiakos in Greece, caused a stir among some Rangers supporters, but McGhee believes fans should retain confidence in homegrown talent.

"Scottish managers have a lot going for them and we should continue to look to get jobs at the highest level and not worry about foreign coaches," he said. "How long have we heard down the road that the best managers over the last 20-odd years have been Scottish?

"Scottish managers are good because they have a good work ethic, a good understanding of the game and are normally articulate, which is a big part of it."

McCall's return to the Scotland set-up is timely, considering he helped mastermind the set-piece that led to Shaun Maloney securing a crucial 1-0 win over the Irish at Celtic Park in November.

"The corner kick was partly improvised, but it did come from one they were doing at Motherwell," said McGhee. "It was brilliant because I had said sometime before that set-plays could be critical in this campaign.

"Has he got anymore? I'm sure we will sit down this week and wait for him to come up with another."

The Republic of Ireland begin their build-up to the visit of Scotland with an 'unofficial friendly' with Northern Ireland behind closed-doors at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin tonight. They will then face England at the same venue on Sunday.

McGhee has joked about sending in "a drone" to glean some inside information from this evening's game, but insists the training match will not affect Strachan's preparations.

"No doubt we will glean a little bit of info along the line about what happened behind closed doors," he said. "However, I don't think any information we get out of the closed doors game will make any difference to the result a week on Saturday.

"We know lots about the Republic. We will see a little bit against England."

McGhee also remains unconcerned by suggestions that the Irish players will benefit from playing better quality opposition than Scotland will come up against in Edinburgh.

"I think we can only look at what we need," he said. "We're quite relaxed with our schedule.

"We trained on Wednesday morning at Hampden for an hour and 50 minutes. We had to stop it. It looked like the players could've gone on all day, so it looks like they are in good shape.

"We'll be training on a full size pitch all week to make sure anyone who is a bit ring rusty gets back to speed."

McGhee has also made it clear that he does not wish to be drawn into the debate over the moral rights and wrongs of hosting Qatar given concerns from political figures and a section of the Scotland fanbase over the treatment of labourers helping construct stadia for the 2022 World Cup.

"We are football people," said McGhee. "We will let other people concern themselves with that.

"Some supporters have said they are maybe not going to come because of political beliefs or moral beliefs.

"We absolutely respect that, but we have been asked by the association to prepare a team to play against Qatar. That's all we will do."