STEVEN GERRARD believes the Scottish FA should appoint a homegrown boss to lead the national side as he played down the prospect of former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson moving to Hampden.

SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell has started his search for the next Scotland head coach following the sacking of Alex McLeish this month.

McLeish was removed from his position in the aftermath of the embarrassing 3-0 defeat away to Kazakhstan and lacklustre victory over San Marino that put Scotland on the back foot in their European Championship qualifying campaign.

Eriksson is just one of a host of foreign bosses that have been linked with the position so far and the likes of Slaven Bilic, Dick Advocaat have also been touted as possible contenders in recent days.

The Swede has moved to distance himself from the conversation about becoming the next man at the Hampden helm and Rangers boss Gerrard insists it should be a Scottish coach that gets the coveted job.

Gerrard said: “It doesn’t surprise me as he has a decent CV and a lot of experience. So it doesn’t surprise me he’s in the frame.

“But as someone managing in Scotland, who has a vested interest in the game here, I hope they stay Scottish.

“I think there are good enough coaches domestically and I hope someone Scottish gets the opportunity.

“There are talented managers out there. There’s been a few names thrown around, foreign and domestic, but I hope a Scot gets the job.

“As a player you always want the best person for the job, who you think you have the best chance of success with. At the time there wasn’t many stand out English coaches.

“There was a buzz for foreign coaches and a lot of big names in the job, with the likes of Capello.

“I had no regrets about who were coaching me, to be honest.

“But where Scottish football is now, we talk about the talent filtering down, it makes sense to go domestic and put a Scottish manager in charge who is given patience and time to blood these youngsters and make the national team stronger.”