Gary Caldwell was glad the Scottish Football Association got their man, after hailing Gordon Strachan the stand-out choice for the Scotland job.
Strachan was immediately installed as the bookies’ favourite when Craig Levein was relieved of his duties in early November.
Having already worked with the new national team coach during their time together at Celtic, Caldwell is confident the right man to succeed Levein is now in place.
The Scotland and Wigan defender said: “I had a great relationship with him at Celtic and spent three great years with him.
“He’s a great choice for Scotland and I think he was the only choice, really, when you see the people who were up for it.
“He was definitely the stand-out choice and I’m glad the SFA have got him.”
Levein retained the backing of his players if not his bosses despite a poor start to the World Cup qualifying campaign.
Caldwell is confident the same commitment will be shown to Strachan by his newly-inherited squad, who he believes must now look to the future.
He said: “Craig understands football. He knows players have to get on with the job.
“We all respected him and had a great time under Craig, but he will know we now have to focus our efforts on the new manager and give everything we can to him, like we gave everything to Craig.
“Sometimes it just doesn’t work out in football. I’m sure he will be back in a job soon and I’m sure he will be our biggest fan and supporting us to do well.”
He added: “I think Craig did a good job. The results we’ve had so far have been disappointing but a manager will tell you he puts a team out and it’s up to the players to get the results.
“The players just fell short at the start of the campaign and that’s why Craig lost his job. Craig was doing a great job and I’m sure Gordon will know that.
“He will see a good nucleus of players that he can pick from and he will just try to bring his own methods, his own ideas, to tinker the team, to maybe change formations and do a bit of coaching with us that will improve us and make us a better team.
“There’s not a lot that needs to be changed, I don’t think, but I’m sure he will have his ideas about what to do.”