The Scotland manager revealed he made no attempt to persuade Celtic midfielder Brown, 31, to reconsider his decision to end his global career after 50 appearances, which was announced on Friday but made two weeks earlier.
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Matt Ritchie has made a great start to life on Tyneside and although he had a quieter game at Bristol City, in all three previous matches the former Bournemouth winger was United’s best player.
“I was happy for Wales, but if you said to me: ‘Are you going to play like Iceland?’ – well, I love Iceland’s spirit and organisation but I’d find it very hard to play like that”.
Ross McCormack is also absent from the squad, announced by the Scottish Football Association on Monday, with Steven Fletcher, Leigh Griffiths, Steven Naismith and Chris Martin the selected strikers. The European Championships had about six different styles, but one of the features I noted was the big striker seems to have come back in – the big target man.
“Listen, I’m okay there”.
“But we get on with it”. I have not really spoken to Darren.
“But don’t take that as finished, that’s for sure”.
The 30-year-old missed his own stag do in Las Vegas to accept a late call-up for the post-season friendlies against France and Italy.
The Scotland boss said: “You have to have a variation of players when you’re picking your squad so you can change the game, change the way you want to play at times”. It is good timing for everyone I think.
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Briefly turning his attention from Celtic’s vital Champions League play-off against Hapoel Be’er Sheva, in which they stand on the brink of involvement in the group stage for the first time since 2013, Brown said he had decided that sacrificing worldwide fixtures would add at least two years to his club career.
