The ESPN analyst and former New York Mets and Texas Rangers manager says he’s interested in taking over for the retiring Lou Piniella after this season.

Valentine, who led the Mets to the pennant in 2000 and managed the Texas Rangers, calls the Cubs job “one of the most coveted positions in all of sports” and adds “anybody who thinks of himself as a manager would love to be considered as one of the people who might take his place.”

Valentine spoke before Sunday’s game between the Cubs and Cardinals.

He returned to ESPN during the 2009 playoffs after his second stint as manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan’s Pacific League. He says he won’t leave the network “unless something very special came up,” and the Cubs job “falls in the category of very special.”

Valentine was close to taking the Florida Marlins head job recently when the plans blew up and he wasn’t hired.  Valentine went on TV and said “If this is a major-league process, I hope I’m never in the process again.”

We also heard earlier this week that Joe Torre, Tony LaRussa and Ryne Sandberg as well as other could be interested in the Cubs head job.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this article.