Celtic and Scotland captain Scott Brown has told Scottish Football Association chief executive Stewart Regan to “get the finger out” and appoint the new manager of the national side.
Brown is annoyed that a replacement for previous manager Gordon Strachan has yet to be confirmed, despite an official approach from the SFA for Northern Ireland head coach Michael O’Neill.
O’Neill will meet with Regan this week to discuss the possibility of taking over the job, and Brown is anxious to see a new man in place as soon as possible with his own international future still up in the air and with just three friendly matches now available before the qualifying campaign for the 2020 European Championships kick off next September.
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“There’s quite a lot of people that have been linked with that job,” Brown said.
“[Michael O’Neill]’s 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.
“We’ve only got three games, so we need to make sure we’ve got the right time and 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.”
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SFA boss Regan intimated after the departure of Strachan from his post that it could take as much as eight months for the body to appoint their chosen man, but Brown can’t believe they would consider waiting so long to fill such a crucial position.
“That’s just silly to wait,” he said. “I think it’s common sense to get the man in as soon as possible.”
Brown fears that any dawdling on the part of the SFA could lead to O’Neill, who has been linked with West Brom, deciding to go elsewhere.
He said: “That’s always a hard one as well, so here’s hoping they actually go and get someone quite quickly and they can get settled in.”
The midfielder says that he is keen to sort out his own international future, and he wants to see what the new Scotland manager has to say before deciding whether he wants to carry on.
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“I’m looking forward to seeing who it is that comes in and having a good chat,” he said.
“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.
“I’ve got until March to see, and he might not want me in the team. I don’t want to say that I am available and then he patches me.
“The two of us will sit down and decide what is the best for the country.”
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