DEAL..OR NO DEAL

Maxy: It's ironic same people clamouring for us to sack Steve now want us to give him a new contract... it's such a fickle industry

- KEITH JACKSON

IAN MAXWELL thinks the world of the guy. Well, he would do, wouldn't he? The SFA chief executive went as far yesterday as to crown Steve Clarke as the greatest Scotland manager of all time, while throwing his considerable weight behind the growing clamour for him to be made a knight of the realm. And why not? It was only a couple of days ago, after all, that Clarke came up with the crown jewels of his six-and-a-half years in charge, with the 4-2 win over Denmark to end almost three decades of global irrelevance.

Having already cracked the code of qualifying for the Euros - and banking his bosses a small fortune in the process Clarke has now secured them with a free pass into FIFA's very own Fort Knox at next summer's World Cup finals.

But, even though Maxwell must be itching to slap a pair of golden handcuffs on his big earner, the man charged with minding the SFA's tiller is content for the time being to take a more gentle approach.

Clarke's contract, of course, will expire when his players kick their last ball at the big one, somewhere or other in Canada, Mexico or the USA.

But, despite the relative urgency of the situation, Maxwell feels the time is not yet right to start pestering him about his plans for the future.

He said yesterday: "It's been the best 48 hours of our football lives and, while I understand the question, we've been open with each other since this journey started so we're both relaxed about the situation.