O'Neill and McLeish in step over stepping down

The road to London once had a mesmeric attraction for those in Scottish football. Not any longer, it would seem.

The only journey that Martin O'Neill and Alex McLeish are embarking on is the one into Europe. Both have been linked with the vacancy at Tottenham Hotspur created by Glenn Hoddle's sacking, yet their ambitions lie a lot closer to G14 than N17.

Progress in the Champions' League will take the Old Firm closer to the élite group of European clubs they crave membership of. Rangers are in Athens this week facing Panathinaikos, while Celtic welcome Lyon to Parkhead. It's a far cry from the trip to Coventry for a Carling Cup match that Spurs undertook in the absence of a manager.

O'Neill and McLeish are men whose reputations are rising along with those of their teams. Since neither is out of work, White Hart Lane would represent a step down, not a step up.

At least the uncertainty helped McLeish to seal a new four-year contract, which he signed on Friday, and though the Rangers manager prudently had an escape clause built in (Sir Alex Ferguson may offer his protégé the keys to Old Trafford one day), he does not expect to use it.

"People talk of an escape clause as though I am in jail here," said McLeish. "Nothing could be further from the truth. All I have is a standard contract for any key employee in any institution. As long as I am doing well at Rangers, that is all that matters to me.

"Everyone knows how precarious football is, so how can I say I will be here for the next 10 years? That's something you rarely see in football now. But if I was to be at Ibrox for that amount of time, it would obviously have been a successful 10 years, because Ran-gers crave success. As long as I am giving them that, I know I will be working for Rangers."

For O'Neill it is familiar territory. He has been the bookmakers' favourite to succeed both Ferguson at Manchester United and Gérard Houllier at Liverpool, while Leeds United went a step further and tried to lure him to Elland Road in the summer of 2002. The financial implosion that consumed Leeds made a switch from Parkhead to Yorkshire sheer folly, but O'Neill suspected as much, even without the benefit of hindsight. He publicly ruled himself out of the Spurs job on Friday, but only because Celtic's stock exchange listing requires them to answer anything which may influence the share price.

O'Neill is becoming tired of England expecting him to move every time a manager is sacked in the Premiership. "I was just four months into the job at Celtic and my future was under scrutiny, and it has remained so. But three years later, I am still here battling away and battling my hardest to keep this job.

"It is difficult at the best of times and almost impossible at the worst times, so on I will go. I am delighted to be here for the Champions' League match on Tuesday unless Brian Quinn [Celtic's plc chairman] tells me something different. I am hoping we can go right through the Champions' League for as long as possible. I can't stop the speculation, but I am absolutely delighted to be in the hot seat. Alex's name was mentioned a week ago as a strong favourite to get the job, and now he has signed a contract which puts him out of the reckoning.

"Gianluca Vialli has also put himself forward, and we could go on speculating from now until eternity. By talking about speculation, then we could go on and insult other clubs when I am not being considered. I want to be talking about this club and I am really happy to be in this job.

"We have been doing fine and last season we ended up being really disappointed, but it was a memorable year, reaching the Uefa Cup final. We look at those things and now we want to try to progress in Europe and capture the Scottish Premier League again."

For the myopic, who see nothing beyond the Premiership, the resistance of O'Neill and McLeish to leave Glasgow must be puzzling. "You can never say never," acknowledged McLeish, "but the challenges that face Rangers over the next few weeks in the Champions' League are what really excite me."