Hamilton Accies chairman Allan Maitland says he's 'excited' by the calibre of applicants who have applied for the vacant manager's position at the club.
But he expects caretakers Guillaume Beuzelin and George Cairns - who took charge of a 2-1 bounce game win over Partick Thistle on Friday - will be in the dugout for Saturday's Championship clash at home to Kilmarnock.
In an exclusive interview with Lanarkshire Live Sport , Maitland has updated fans on the search to replace Brian Rice, who resigned unexpectedly last week.
And he revealed a few of the candidates to apply are currently employed elsewhere.
Maitland said: "As things stand, Beuzy and George will take the team on Saturday.
"They are in training today and they are working towards a big game with Kilmarnock on Saturday.
"Even if we make an appointment before then - which I think is extremely unlikely - I would expect that person would be observing, rather than taking the team before the weekend.
"The standard [of applicants] is high. There is enough in there to make me think that's quite exciting and interesting.
"I've got to say that most people applying are candidates who are currently out of a job at the moment.
"That's a normal thing, but it's not always the right person for the job.
"I've got two or three interviews with people who are already in a job and that's interesting for various reasons. They are looking for a change, as opposed to just looking for a job.
"It will be an important choice for the football club and one we need to get right.
"We are not going to rush into it, but I would expect Beuzy, George and Brian [Potter] will be taking the team for Saturday."
Various names have been touted for the role, among them former Rangers winger Neil McCann, ex-Ross County bosses Stuart Kettlewell and John Hughes and ex-Accies player Stuart Taylor, with Beuzelin also believed to be interested in the role permanently.
Maitland wouldn't comment on any names, but added: "As always with job vacancies, many applications have come in, but they come through in so many different ways.
"They come through an agent or maybe somebody just tells you such and such would be interested, but he won't apply unless you think it's right.
"Then you get people who formally apply, so there's lot of different things flying about at the moment.
"Hamilton Accies is a fantastic football club with great prospects, so it's a job that appeals to lots of people and rightly so.
"We are not at a stage where we will be conducting interviews yet. I'm at the stage where I am going through all of them [the applications] with a view of yes, no or don't know.
"There's three different groups at the moment that I'm working through and that will take a wee while.
"There's a lot to discuss and a lot to consider."
Last week, Hamilton Accies' Supporters Association wrote an open letter, asking the club to ensure they make the "correct appointment" to take the club forward.
Fans fear a further disconnect between the club and the support, but Maitland - who managed the team himself between 2003-2005 - has defended the club's record on recent managerial appointments.
He added: "Speaking to the supporters' association, they were talking about getting the right person.
"By them saying that, that suggests the club haven't made the right choices in the past.
"But unless I'm mistaken, since I was the manager here we've had Billy Reid come in, get the club promoted and was a hugely successful manager - and now he's the number two at Brighton.
"We replaced him with Alex Neil who was a hugely successful manager for us, got the club promoted and got Norwich promoted to the English Premier League.
"Martin Canning managed to keep the club in the Premiership for four seasons and Brian Rice kept us up for two seasons before last season's relegation, which I thought was unfortunate for numerous different reasons.
"So I don't think we've been too bad with our choices and we've been pretty loyal with people.
"The club has had fantastic managers in their own ways and we will take our time to get this right."
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