Aberdeen: How did fan Ross Nicholson get linked with the managerial vacancy?
- Published
A friend stands to pocket £40 if Ross Nicholson lands the Aberdeen job
Alex McLeish is on the list. Likewise Eddie Howe, Martin O'Neill, and former cup winning hero Stephen Glass. But amid the stellar names, one apparent contender for the Aberdeen job causes a double take. Ross Nicholson, anyone?
The 21-year-old is as surprised as anyone to find himself thrust into the mix for the role vacated by Derek McInnes on Monday.
Dons fan Nicholson - whose tactical expertise is limited to playing Football Manager - was priced up at 7/1 with one bookmaker on Tuesday, and 16/1 with another.
So how did he end up alongside some managerial heavyweights in the running for one of the biggest jobs in Scottish football?
"Me and my pals were all looking at the odds coming out, all wanting to know who the new manager will be, and one of my them thought 'Why not, we'll chance it'," Nicholson told BBC Scotland.
"So he contacted a betting company on Twitter and gave them my name, asking for the odds on me to be the next manager.
"The betting firms do their checks and see if an actual person exists with this information, so I was thinking that will be the end of it.
"Then one of my pals searched the internet and came across a goalkeeper with my name in New Zealand."
An edited Wikipedia page later - the clues were there with Nicholson's current club given as Czech outfit 'Diznei Exeest' - and he was in with the big names as the prank took off.
"All of a sudden I've popped up as third favourite at 7/1 - a mate has put a fiver on me," Nicholson added.
"It was nice to be ahead of the likes of Eddie Howe. I was a bit disappointed to see I was behind Craig Levein - I thought I'd have been a bit better than him..."
After his unlikely rise to prominence caused a stir on social media, Nicholson is clinging to hope of a call from the Aberdeen chairman.
"I was expecting Dave Cormack to send me a message and maybe get me in the hotseat for a day. I'm still waiting for that," he said.
One bookmaker had Ross Nicholson quoted at 16/1 to be named the next Aberdeen manager