‘Sad, sad, sad day’ says Brown after Strach exit

SCOTT Brown believes the Scottish Football Association has made the wrong call in deciding to replace Scotland boss Gordon Strachan.

The governing body has parted company with the national team manager after Scotland failed to qualify for next summer’s World Cup.

But Celtic midfielder Brown says Strachan still had the support of his players, who felt he could lead them to Euro 2020.

Scotland captain Brown, who now looks set to quit international football for a second time, posted on his Instagram account: “Sad sad sad day.

“We all had faith in Gordon and believed in making the Euros.

“Fourteen points out of 18 in 2017 — momentum was on our side.”

However, former Scotland winger Davie Provan believes Hampden bosses have made the right call.

“I don’t think the SFA had any alternative, to be honest with you,” he said.

“Gordon himself would have to admit he’s been given a fair crack of the whip over five years and two campaigns. So Gordon can’t accuse the SFA of being unfair to him.

“I think what they would have taken into consideration is that Gordon still had the support of his players and that would have weighed heavily on their minds.

“Overall you can’t argue with results and we’ve come up short again. I think (the SFA) have taken a sensible decision.”

In their statement announcing Strachan’s departure, the SFA said it had “agreed” with the 60-year-old that fresh leadership was required ahead of their Euro 2020 bid.

And former Scotland captain Graeme Souness feels his former international colleague had taken the side as far as he could.

The former Rangers and Liverpool said: “It’s sad we didn’t qualify this time round from what was a relatively easy group.

“I think had we qualified or at least got second, he’d have stayed and looked forward possibly to the next Euros.

“It’s all about results. He’s not got what he wanted in terms of qualifying so I know Gordon and he wouldn’t have hung about if he felt he couldn’t do that job.

“As a national manager you can only pick what’s out there and right now Scotland don’t have a fabulous group to pick from.

“The professional in him will say, ‘We should have qualified’ and Gordon will get criticism because he’s a football manager — like all managers do.

“But I wouldn’t criticise him because I think he did a good job with what he had to work with.”

Former Scotland winger Davie Provan says the SFA made the right call.