Perry Lefko

Perry Lefko keeps you connected to all the news in the CFL on Sportsnet.ca.

Anthony Calvillo and Marc Trestman.

There's a good reason why the Als aren't worried about Marc Trestman leaving...yet.

The rumour mill has the Oakland Raiders possibly interested in interviewing Montreal Alouettes’ head coach Marc Trestman for a similar job.

Of course the rumour mill also had Trestman on the list of candidates for the Buffalo Bills’ head coaching job, filled earlier this week by Chan Gailey.

And if memory serves correct, Trestman was also supposedly on the list for the Raiders’ head coaching job a year ago.

The speculation about Trestman stems from a San Francisco Chronicle report that suggests he is on a list of candidates that Al Davis, the Raiders’ wacky owner, would be interested in talking to about the Oakland head coaching job.

The position with the Raiders isn’t vacant. Tom Cable is currently ensconced in the role, but apparently Davis isn’t too enamoured with the Cable guy, who had a 5-11 record last year.

Trestman has worked in the National Football League in a variety of roles, including as offensive co-ordinator of the Raiders from 2001-2003 and he is friends with Davis.

"What I can tell you is I am unaware of any NFL teams asking for permission to talk to Marc Trestman," Als general manager Jim Popp told sportsnet.ca. "It’s speculation."

Popp said he talked to Trestman on Monday night about personnel moves and the subject of the Raiders never came up during the conversation. Trestman signed a contract extension recently that binds him to the Als through the 2012 season.

Popp said he has no intention to speak with Trestman about the newspaper story.

"I’m not going to hunt down what’s going on because it’s all a rumour," he said. "It’s like every other month, there’s a new one."

Trestman’s name has been surfacing due to his success in the Canadian Football League since joining the Als two seasons ago.

He guided them to a Grey Cup appearance in his first year and he won a championship with them last year.

MILANOVICH IN DEMAND: Trestman’s assistant, Scott Milanovich, who oversees the quarterbacks, is in hot demand.

Both Toronto and Winnipeg have an interest in him.

It’s expected that whoever is named the team’s new GM will influence the coaching decision. It’s said to be between Calgary GM Jim Barker, who oversees the personnel but doesn’t have final say, and Joe Mack, a onetime player personnel director with the Bombers but who hasn’t worked in the CFL in 20 years. Barker was the offensive co-ordinator of the new-defunct Los Angeles Xtreme and Milanovich was one of the team’s quarterbacks. Barker is also close with Calgary defensive co-ordinator Chris Jones, who is also in the mix for the coaching job.

What will be interesting is whether Barker factors into the Toronto mix. There are all kinds of rumours of what will happen with the Argos, pending a potential ownership change. Adam Rita is currently the Argos’ GM, but his situation is tenuous.

Barker worked as the head coach of the Argos in 1999 and has a friendship with the team’s president, Bob Nicholson.

Milanovich, by the way, is tight with Argos’ defensive co-ordinator Pete Kuharchek, one of the few assistants that had an impact as a member of former Toronto head coach Bart Andrus’ staff. Don’t be surprised if Milanovich is hired in Winnipeg or Toronto and that he has Kuharchek on his staff.

SPEAKING OF THE ARGOS OWNERS: There’s rumblings that B.C. Lions owner David Braley and Argo co-owners David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski are not on the same financial wavelength concerning a sale of the team.

Cynamon and Sokolowski have a figure in mind for Braley to buy the team, but apparently it’s a little too rich for him at this point. Conversely, Braley is said to have his own ideas about the sale given that he has helped to financially front the Argo owners since they bought the franchise after the 2003 season.

Maybe this explains why the Argo owners and Braley still haven’t consummated some kind of transaction to turn over the franchise. Notwithstanding the optics of one person owning two franchises in the same league, it makes you wonder what is holding up this deal.

CFL commissioner Mark Cohon suggested in a radio interview last week the Argo owners are looking to hook up with a "strategic partner." At his state of the league address during Grey Cup week, Cohon stressed he wanted the ownership situation to be resolved quickly.

It has been anything but that.