ONE Brown was never good enough to play for Scotland. The other is captain and one cap away from being accepted into the Hall of Fame.

The former made it to two World Cups and two European Championships as a coach and manager. While the younger of the pair has not done anything like this because his team has this nasty habit of losing to Georgia.

Craig Brown, for it is he, would have given anything to have won even just one cap for his country. Scott Brown has 49 of them and the Gibraltar game on Sunday might just be his last.

Brown, the player that is, might be ready to walk away. Brown, the former manager, believes that would be a bad thing for both football and country.

Brown senior said: "I think he will want to play every game he can and that he would want to play for Scotland.

“He has 49 caps and there is another wee incentive for him. At the end of the day in football, a player is not judged on how much money he has made, he is judged on his achievements. One of them is the number of caps he’s won.

“Nobody cares about how much money Scott Brown has made. They would care about the number of caps he’s got, or titles he has won.

“You would want him to get to the Hall of Fame. He deserves it. Scott has captained Scotland and has really battled. When you have guys like that, you want him about you, you want him in your team. So if he goes it would be disappointing, in my opinion.”

After the draw with Poland, Brown was asked quite directly about whether he would be about at least for the World Cup campaign.

“It's hard on everyone's body,” he said. “There are a lot of games and not a lot of holidays for us. We'll see where that goes when it comes around.”

Contrast with Shaun Maloney, who is two-and-a-half years older than Brown. When asked if he had the appetite for another campaign with Scotland, Maloney said: “Personally, yes I do.

“I absolutely love playing for Scotland. It’s a privilege. It’s what gets you up in the morning so I’m very proud to play. But I think it’ll be the manager of the national side who will decide when I don’t play. Not me.”

The man who took us to England in 1996 and then France two years later - a tournament to those of us who can remember it which now feels an eternity away - could understand why someone such as the Celtic captain was at the very least considering stepping away from Scotland.

When it was suggested that he would be someone to take a dim view of a player walking away from Scotland, Brown said: “That is the way I feel. But then I’m not getting my legs battered or my family wondering where he is because he’s always away.

“It’s easy for me to sit here and say ‘Scott Brown shouldn’t do this, he should so that’ but you are in now in his domestic or indeed professional situation. I don’t know what his legs are like. He might end up like me – a cripple. He’s a Brown!

“I would not condemn him for it because Jim Leighton and Paul Lambert did it, politely, courteously and with no hassle. They said they would not continue.

“The players who have retired from international football before have done it to prolong their club career. The only breaks they got, and this is particularly true of someone like Scott, would be the international breaks.

“I must admit that my thoughts are how could you turn down playing for your national team. Now I was someone who wasn’t good enough to get that chance, so therefore I am maybe not the right guy to ask. But I just feel that way.

“Lambert did it to Berti Vogts. Leighton also retired on 91 caps with 45 clean sheets. I was sure he would get 100. So it’s not something new and if there are two guys I respect in the game is Lambert and Leighton.

"I don’t know Scott Brown because I never worked with him. I have watched him playing and I’d like him in my team because he gives you a shift. But I do know the other two guys and you couldn’t find two more decent guys. Yet they made that decision, for different reasons, to retire from international football.”

It would be different if Scotland were actually qualifying for major tournaments.

Walking away from appearing in the finals of the European Championships and World Cups is difficult. Doing so when you think the next campaign is going to end in disappointed is far easier.

Brown, the elder one, said: “I don’t think that would be issue for Scott. I genuinely don’t. It would be about him wanting to prolong his career at club level and get a wee break now and again. It is an arduous shift, especially if you are at a club such as Celtic.”

And when you have such a shift, something eventually has to give.