Scotland boss Sebastien Pocognoli still on Premier League clubs' radar

New Scotland head coach Sebastien Pocognoli remains on the radar of Premier League clubs.

That's according to Craig Mulholland who was the man at the centre of the recruitment of the highly-rated 39-year-old as a dynamic and fresh outlook on the role.

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Mulholland, the Scottish FA's Chief Football Officer, admits the new national team boss has admirers down south who have considered moving for him over the course of his career in the dugout.

But that signals that the SFA picked the right man who has a big future ahead of him with, and perhaps beyond, his time with the Scots.

"You would rather start a new job with energy and really get at it, the way I've had to here. I had a joke with Ian (Maxwell), saying the good thing is that, at Nottingham Forest last year we had four managers. So this is not exactly new," Mulholland said.

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"All joking aside, that did help. I know for a fact – because it's my job to know the intel of what other clubs are looking at – that Sebastien is on the list of many Premier League clubs.

"At the start of this process, I didn't know about Sebastien the way I do now. But that's the strength of the process. It takes you to who your candidate is going to be. Sebastien spoke to a number of clubs and football associations during the summer.

"He's on the radar of everybody. But I'd rather take a coach who's on that upward trajectory.

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"People talk about being safe. Well, we're taking one of Europe's brightest young coaches that people didn't think we could get.

"He might be young in his career. But all the data we've looked at tells us that's actually what's going to be most successful. And the biggest thing is that the players we've spoken to are excited. I could hear it in their voices.

"We didn't run his name past them. But as part of the process, we spoke to key players to say, 'Right, everyone acknowledges that Steve did an unbelievable job'.

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"There was nothing negative about that, Clarke is Scotland's most successful manager.

"But we asked the players, 'What do you think we need, based on your experiences of working with coaches like Jurgen Klopp and Unai Emery, to take Scotland to another level. The feedback we got from the players was helpful in that process.

"You then link that to the data, which you then link to the person. Hopefully that's led us to where we are today."

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