DON’T BE SILLY

Brown warns SFA not to dither over national boss And skipper admits he’s been impressed by O’Neill

SCOTLAND captain Scott Brown last night urged SFA chief executive Stewart Regan to land a new national manager as soon as possible.

And Brown believes it was ‘silly’ when Regan previously claimed the governing body could afford to wait before making an appointment.

The SFA have made a formal approach for leading target Michael O’Neill, although face-to-face talks with the Northern Ireland manager are on hold after his mother passed away at the weekend.

The move for O’Neill could also be complicated by rival i nterest, although sources from south of the border insist the Edinburgh resident isn’t in the running for the West Bromwich Albion job after the sacking of Tony Pulis yesterday.

While Scotland don’t play another competitive match until the Nations League begins next September, Brown believes time is still of the essence in terms of securing O’Neill or a back- up option. The Celtic

midfielder wants to see Gordon Strachan’s successor given as much leeway as possible to prepare for the Euro 2020 bid — and will hold talks about his own international future once the new man is in place. Asked about O’Neill for Scotland, Brown replied: ‘There’s quite a lot of people that have been linked with that job. ‘He (O’Neill) has done a great job at Northern Ireland taking them to the Euros, so he’d be good if that’s the man they are going to go for. ‘But I think they need to get the finger out a little bit and get the man sorted out, because there’s not a lot of time between now and the start of the qualifiers. ‘I think we’ve only got three (friendly) games. So we need to make sure we’ve got the right team and that the manager knows who he is going to play, so that we’re not just going right in and we have momentum going into the first game.’ When it was pointed out that Regan had last month spoken of how Scotland could wait, possibly until next summer, if it meant landing the right man, Brown responded: ‘That’s just silly. I think it’s common sense to get the man in as soon as possible.’ Brown retired from international duty last summer but later returned to the fold to help Strachan’s ultimately unsuccessful bid to claim a World Cup play-off place. Now 32, the midfielder is keen to discuss what happens next once an appointment is made. ‘I’m looking forward to seeing who it is that comes in and having a good chat,’ added Brown. ‘I’ll just go from there, so whether he is wanting a young team or whether he is wanting a couple of old veterans, you never know. ‘I’ll just see what the manager wants to do and take it from there.’