The length of his stay as Scotland manager may have become the subject of growing speculation, but Alex McLeish has focused the attention back on his players and insisted they are ready to attain legendary status with a win against Italy.

George Peat, the SFA president, admitted on Tuesday that McLeish will be allowed to consider new job offers once the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign ends - yet the lure of club football is not what currently occupies the mind of the national coach.

David Weir and Christian Dailly may be the only squad members with major finals experience, having both played at the 1998 World Cup, but McLeish believes the mindset now exists throughout the squad to achieve the win at Hampden that will clinch a place at next summer's finals.

"They're all in fine fettle and ready to go," said McLeish, who played at three World Cups. "There's no doubt about it - this is a cup final for them.

"It's a fantastic game in Scotland's history and we want to do what some of the legends in the past have done."

McLeish has admitted he is torn between two formations for Saturday's showdown with the world champions, but also made it clear he will not allow a country's growing expectation to affect his tactics.

"There'll be times we have to be patient," said McLeish. "The Italians are very good at keeping the ball.

"If we go hell for leather and play just from our hearts, then the Italians are very capable of opening us up very easily. We have to be careful of their threats and try to negate them as much as possible and obviously play to our own strengths."

The Italian squad yesterday continued to train at their Florence training headquarters and do not arrive in Scotland until tomorrow.

However, McLeish insisted any idea that Roberto Donadoni's players will not be acclimatised to the challenge at Hampden is a nonsense.

"These guys have been around the block quite a few times," he said of the Italian internationalists. "They're world champions and you don't become world champions if you don't have a trick or two up your sleeve."

While a draw against Italy is not necessarily fatal for Scotland's final hopes - with a Ukraine win over France in Kiev next Wednesday still enough to clinch qualification for McLeish's side - there was less than encouraging news on that eastern front last night.

Oleh Blokhin, the Ukraine head coach, has learned that three of his first-choice back four will miss Saturday's game against Lithuania as well as the French encounter.

Andriy Nesmachniy, Andriy Rusol and Oleksandr Kucher have all been ruled out, with Vladyslav Vaschuk and Oleksandr Romanchuk, fringe players at Dynamo Kyiv and Arsenal Kyiv respectively, called into the squad.

Dmytro Chygrynskiy, the Shakhtar Donetsk youngster has also been drafted in, despite the defender having been in action this week for the Under-21s.