Christophe Berra urges SFA to appoint Michael O'Neill
Scotland defender Christophe Berra has backed Michael O'Neill to succeed Gordon Strachan but believes the Scottish Football Association will face a battle to secure his appointment.
O'Neill has emerged as the SFA's number one candidate to succeed Strachan after almost guiding Northern Ireland into next year's World Cup.
Following Northern Ireland's narrow play-off defeat to Switzerland, the SFA made an approach to the Irish Football Association for manager O'Neill.
And Berra is full of admiration for the work he has done at Windsor Park.
"He's done a great, great job at Northern Ireland," the 41-cap defender said. "His stock is high right now so they have every right (to go for him).
"He is a British manager, will know a lot of the players, he lives in Edinburgh, so I think it would be very suitable for him. But it's down to him if he wants to stay at Northern Ireland or go back to club football."
O'Neill has been linked with several other jobs in the past week, with Sunderland and the United States rumoured to be interested following the success of his work with Northern Ireland.
Despite suffering a poor start in the job, O'Neill took the team to a major international tournament for the first time in 30 years when he led them to Euro 2016, before narrowly missing out on the World Cup.
Berra added: "In the last two campaigns Northern Ireland have done superbly well and they were very unfortunate not to qualify for the World Cup or even get into at least extra-time (against Switzerland).
"His stock is high just now, he's done really well and if Scotland do get him, it's a great job to have.