Rangers defender Lee Hodson can see why his manager at international level, Michael O’Neill, is being linked with the now vacant position as head coach of Scotland, and recognises that the Scottish FA would be mad not to consider him for the post.

He is hoping though that O’Neill’s success with Northern Ireland, as well as a rather important play-off date coming up in November, will persuade the 48-year-old that his future lies in continuing to lead the green and white army, rather than taking on the hope and dreams of the beleaguered tartan version.

If O’Neill takes Northern Ireland to successive major finals, it seems unlikely that he would jump from such a buoyant ship to one that is sinking deeper into a 20-year run of failure, but there is little doubt that the qualities Hodson attributes to O’Neill fit the bill of what the SFA will likely be looking for in a candidate.

Top of the list, have you a track record of qualifying for major tournaments, or at very least, the playoffs? Check. Can you mould a team unit to become more than the sum of its parts? Check. And are you familiar with the Scottish football scene and the players available? Checkmate.

It’s hard to find an argument against an approach for his services, and you won’t find one in Hodson’s assessment of his national gaffer.

“Michael O’Neill has done well for Northern Ireland and in football there’s always going to interest from other nations and at club level, so it doesn’t surprise me that Michael’s been linked with a few jobs,” Hodson said.

“Michael is terrific, he’s done a great job, we’ve a great set of lads, great togetherness, everyone gets on. You look forward to going away on international duty.

“It’s a credit to the lads and coaching staff that we’ve got to a play-off spot. Michael has his way of playing, he knows the best way for us to play. What is effective for us as a team, to play to our strengths. We get results from that. If we play the way we can and what we’re good at then we are effective to win games. I think that’s proven over the last two years.”

And not a mention of genetics in sight. Hodson himself stands a smidgeon over five foot eight, but is precisely the ability to deploy the players he has in such a way that it wrings every last drop from them that Hodson points to as O’Neill’s key strength.

“It’s a small nation, we don’t have as many players as England to select from,” he said. “It’s a credit to Michael that he has this group of players that he believes in and that he wanted to push through. He’s very big on how disciplined we are and it’s very effective. He knows what we’re good at and makes sure we play that we and that it is effective for us.”

These days, with his stock at an all-time high after the heroics he has produced from this group of players, it is easy to forget that O’Neill’s first qualification campaign with Northern Ireland yielded just one win from 10 games, with a defeat to Luxembourg thrown in for good measure.

To suggest that a Scotland manager would survive such a run of results is fanciful at best, but crucially, O’Neill would be met with a much brighter picture if he did indeed take on the job as Scotland boss than he was met with as he set out with his homeland.

There is a core of reasonably experienced players to work with, as well as promising talents bubbling away under the surface. If he could get the formula right, then the road to success with the Scots may not be quite as arduous a journey.

“I didn’t think there would be a change when we weren’t winning,” Hodson said. “The lads all believed in what Michael was doing. Things don’t just happen just like that. It’s difficult for international managers not having that much time on the field with the lads as you do at club level.

“You normally go away for 10 days maybe and you get five or six training sessions from September, October, November then March.

“As a manager coming in at first, it’s probably very difficult to put across how you want to play in such a short period of time. Eventually it clicked. We had that time with the previous campaign where we didn’t do as well, then we started to realise what we were good at and if we do it well we are very effective. That’s what happened at the start of the Euros campaign.

“I think anyone can get there if you believe. Scotland were very close. They showed great character to take it to the last couple of games, winning games and were very close to a play-off spot.

“I don’t think there’s any great difference. We obviously got a few early results in our group which guaranteed us the points earlier. It’s always good to secure the first three or four games to get as many points as you can. Maybe that was the difference – we took our points early on.

“But that’s not for me to discuss, I’m only concentrating on Northern Ireland at the moment. I don’t know what goes on in the Scotland camp. But they were very unlucky to just miss out, I thought they finished very strongly in the campaign.”

Close indeed, but again, no cigar. And while Scottish football is left to another long and painful period of navel-gazing and self-examination, our near neighbours from across the Irish Sea, as well as their manager, are gearing up for yet another momentous occasion.

“[Michael]’s enjoying his time here and reaching another major finals is all that’s on his mind, and that starts in November with the play-offs,” said Hodson.

“Hopefully then we’ll have another major tournament to prepare for this summer.”

Scotland can but look on in envy. Both at the adventure Northern Ireland are again about to embark upon, and for now at least, at the man in the dugout.