Scott Brown says Gordon Strachan behind Scotland stay
Thursday 19 November 2015 16:45, UK
Scott Brown says he thought about quitting Scotland until Gordon Strachan committed to a new deal.
Strachan signed a two-year contract extension to stay on as manager despite his side's failure to qualify for next summer's European Championship finals.
All the other home nations qualified along with the Republic of Ireland, who beat Scotland to third place in Group D and went on to get past Bosnia and Herzegovina in the play-offs.
That game was painful to watch for captain Brown, but he is confident his old boss at Celtic has the Scots moving in the right direction.
"It's huge," Brown said of Strachan's contract. "It was huge for myself. As people were saying, I was thinking about retiring, but Gordon is the main reason I'm not.
"He's the main reason I'm at Celtic today still - he was the one who brought me to the club.
"I've got a lot to thank him for, and he's helped me through some tough times and some great times. It's just great he's been manager of my club and country.
"It was devastating when I turned the telly on and saw Ireland were 2-0 up [against Bosnia and Herzegovina]. I just had to switch it off again. Congratulations to Ireland.
"We're so disappointed, but we're not too far away. We've got some great players, and everyone's staying on for another campaign which is great."
Scotland twice drew with Poland in qualifying and twice pushed world champions Germany close before losing both games, and in the end it was defeat in Georgia that sealed their fate.
"We've definitely got the makings of a great side," Brown said. "We've shown that against Germany and Poland.
"Hopefully we can continue that against the lesser-known sides. It's always those you seem to struggle with - they sit behind the ball and you have to break them down, but we're getting there slowly."
