Today Scotland captain Scott Brown announced his retirement from international football. Many pundits and punters are morning his loss to our international squad.

I met the news with apathy.

For me, Scott Brown hasn’t had too many storming performances in a Scotland shirt. During the last qualifying campaign he often looked tired, slow and clumsy.

Now there’s no doubt that he’s come back to Celtic this preseason with a renewed vigour and energy. But we’ve seen that from him before and then he tails off. He knows that and I bet Brendan Rodgers knows that.

Brown said this about his retirement:

“It’s no secret that I’ve suffered some injuries in my career and once you get over 30 you have to protect your body more,”

So at thirty-one, with the injuries he’s had, he needs to manage his game time better. So he has quit the international team in the hope of prolonging his Celtic career.

I have never been overly fussed by footballers retiring from international duty in favour of prolonging their career when they reach thirty or older. It makes sense and I think Brown will have a better season because of it, as he’ll have more rest time.

But at the same time I also think that when they’ve made that decision then it’s better for Scottish fans to look forward and not on what might have been or what we might miss. The fact is that the player no longer feels he can represent his country, so let him go and carry on.

I also think it’s one position that we have decent replacements.

I think Darren Fletcher can step up and regain his regular spot in the Scotland team and become the leader again. He managed to play thirty-eight times in the Premier League last term for West Brom and he performed to a good standard.

He’ll be ideal to mop up in the midfield. I think a problem with Fletcher and Brown was that they never looked to be a good partnership. They’d often perform better when playing beside someone else. So don’t be surprised if Fletcher actually improves if he gets the armband back.

We also have James McArthur, who is another solid Premier League performer. Maybe others like Ryan Jack and some of the younger lads can come in and impress.

Our main problem in midfield hasn’t been finding the leaders or the bosses, it’s been finding that player who can create from the middle of the park.

Brown like Barry Ferguson and Fletcher before him have often been let down by not having the right partner in beside him and we really need to solve that problem.

I honestly think that Scott Brown has made the right decision for his career and I also believe that Celtic will profit from this decision.

Good luck to him, but I am not going to miss him or worry about what happens next. Players retire all the time and we just need to evolve as a squad and look to improve.

Posted on August 19th, 2016 by scott
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