St Mirren: Guti shows interest in manager post as club move towards interviews

Jose Maria Gutierrez Hernandez moved into coaching with Real Madrid's youth teams

Champions League winner Jose Maria Gutierrez Hernandez has shown interest in the managerial vacancy at St Mirren.

The representative of the former Real Madrid and Spain midfielder, more commonly known as Guti, has been in touch with the Paisley club.

Jack Ross left St Mirren for Sunderland shortly after the Buddies' promotion.

And the Championship winners hope to appoint their new manager within the next seven days, with interviews expected to take place next week.

Guti, 41, won the Champions League three times with Real Madrid and was capped 13 times by Spain, also playing for Besiktas in Turkey.

He currently coaches the youth teams at Real. However, following the resignation of manager Zinedine Zidane on Thursday, Guti has been tipped as a possible candidate to replace the Frenchman at the European champions.

Zidane, 45, was promoted from within the club and Guti could do likewise.

The frontrunners for the St Mirren post are ex-Ross County manager Jim McIntyre and former Hearts and MK Dons boss Robbie Neilson.

Alan Stubbs, who previously managed Hibernian and Rotherham, and former Wigan and Chesterfield boss Gary Caldwell are others under consideration, while Coleraine manager Oran Kearney is believed to be on the shortlist for interview.

Kearney was named Northern Ireland manager of the year after guiding Coleraine to Irish Cup success and a runners-up finish in the Irish Premiership.

His side came within three points of securing a historic double at the end of a campaign in which they suffered Premiership defeat only once.

The 39-year-old is the son-in-law of former Kilmarnock manager Kenny Shiels, who is currently in charge of Derry City.