Captain hits out at ‘sad day’ for Scots

Mixed views, but skipper Brown feels SFA made the wrong decision

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

The governing body 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. 14 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 told Sky Sports News.

“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 boss told Sky Sports News: “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.”

David Moyes now leads the bookmakers’ list of potential candidates but Provan admits Scotland will struggle to attract a top name unless they are prepared to pay accordingly.

He said: “I don’t think David Moyes could be attracted back into football for the Scotland job.

“I think we have to face it that the Scotland job no longer holds the attraction that it once did when we had people like Jock Stein in the position.

“What I do believe is the SFA need to make the position as attractive as possible, even if that means hiking the salary.

“There is no doubt managers can make a lot more money in club football than they could by managing Scotland.”

St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright earlier laughed off speculation linking him with the role.

“My agent must be doing well,” Wright joked. “I don’t know where it’s coming from, but I saw a list of some of the other names mentioned for the Scotland job... I feel quite humble about it.

“I’m concentrating on doing a job, Gordon Strachan has had a great end to the campaign and was unfortunate with the result they had in the last game.

“My focus is just totally on trying to get a result against Rangers.”

Sad sad sad day. We all had faith in Gordon and believed in making the Euros. SCOTT BROWN