THE Scottish Football Association are “running out of time” to secure Michael O’Neill as the next manager of the international team. The Sunday Herald has been told the 48-year-old Northern Irishman has been left surprised and frustrated by the SFA’s apparent lack of willingness to directly sit down with him and talk terms.

O’Neill is still open to meeting those who run Scottish football but the negotiations must begin soon or the former Hibernian and Dundee United player, who remains the SFA’s top target to replace Gordon Strachan, will turn his back on the country where he lives.

It is unlikely the Northern Ireland manager will wait until the end of the month to sort out his future. There remains some within the SFA who believe they will still get their man; however, a source close to O’Neill said the manager is running out of patience.

A problem for the SFA, who made an official approach for O’Neill in November, is the money involved. The IFA, the body which runs football in Northern Ireland, wants to keep the manager who took them to a European Championship and the verge of their first World Cup since 1986, and are prepared to pay £500,000 a year to do so, which would have to be matched at least.

O’Neill has two years left on his current deal and has been offered a four-year extension. It is understood the SFA would have to pay an unprecedented compensation fee of £500,000, but should they do so, the IFA would be powerless to prevent O’Neill leaving, if he were to accept the Scotland job.

It is now two months since Strachan vacated his post and although Scotland do not have a competitive game until the Uefa National League begins in September, with potential friendlies in March, it would be an embarrassment if the SFA required another interim manager, as they did with Malky Mackay in the international friendly against The Netherlands.