Villa manager Alex McLeish faces his first shoot-out against one of the ‘magnificent seven’ Glaswegian Premier League managers when Steve Kean’s Blackburn come to town.

But McLeish is unable to explain the significance of why being born in a Glasgow postcode provides the necessary genetic make-up to become a successful football manager.

The clan of Scottish managers currently outnumber the native contingent by seven to five which is quite some statistic, but that they were all born within 13 miles of Glasgow is nothing short of a footballing phenomenon.

McLeish said: “The Glaswegians are taking over! I suppose it is a bit unusual to have seven Scottish managers who all come from round about the Glasgow area.

“I guess sometimes it happens in cycles. I think a lot of the traits of the Scots people are when you go and take on a new challenge in another country you don’t want to fail.

“You want to prove to people that the Scots can cut it at this level. I guess there’s a wee bit of that – the old kind of chip on the shoulder thing.

“I also think there’s that thing about our working-class roots being a part of it, but there’s many other terrific managers throughout British football who have come from working-class backgrounds and are not from Scotland.

“I appreciate that also, but the Scottish ones have got kind of connections. My dad was in the shipyards and Sir Alex’s dad was in the shipyards.”

The Glasgow cartel are also a close-knit bunch and McLeish admitted that he is friendly with the other six bosses including the ‘Godfather’ Sir Alex Ferguson.

McLeish continued: “I know all of the guys really well – Steve Kean more so.

“He first started working with a couple of colleagues, Tommy Burns and Mark McGhee, and he’s come through the ranks and now burst through into the managerial show as well.

“There are similar traits. I think there’s a dogged determination in probably every one of us. Having worked with Owen Coyle I know him as a player.

“He’s a fiercely determined character who’s also a great team player and he was very encouraging in his days as a player.

“I know David Moyes and of course I also know the ‘gaffer’  Sir Alex.

“He’s the Godfather of world football, never mind the Godfather of the Glasgow clan!”

You would think there is an extra motivation for McLeish when he faces his fellow Glaswegians, but the Villa boss admitted it would be no different to facing one of the five native Englishman in the Premier League.

He said: “Does it add more spice because it is a fellow Scot? Not really, I always want to get one up on a fellow manager.

“It doesn’t really give me any extra satisfaction beating these guys, I don’t think so. I like to get one over on anybody.

“It is no different from me facing an English manager – I want to win this game and Steve Kean will be the same.”

McLeish heads into the fixture against the Lancashire side with the luxury of a full side – apart from Carlos Cuellar – to choose from after goalkeeper Shay Given overcame a slight groin problem.

The claret and blues faced Blackburn only a few weeks ago in a pre-season game in the Barclays Asia Trophy where they were 1-0 winners, but McLeish admitted Villa have not necessarily got the upper hand because of that.

He said: “We have obviously played Blackburn in Hong Kong in pre-season but that was far from Steve Kean’s strongest side because they had a lot of players coming back from injury, so I wouldn’t read too much into it.

“I was a bit surprised that Blackburn lost to Wolves last weekend, considering the way they played in the last game of last season at Molineux.

“They have got some very good players who on their day can cause any defence problems.

“But I’m hoping that our front lads can take the game to them.”

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