NON, je ne regrette rien.

As he prepares to bring one of the more eventful seasons in his career to a close with an outing against France here in Metz this evening, Steven Naismith has, like Gallic chanteuse Edith Piaf, no cause to feel remorseful.

The Scotland forward, who is set to start up front for Gordon Strachan’s side in the friendly international in the Stade Saint-Symphorien, has suffered his fair share of blows during the 2015/16 campaign.

Despite netting a perfect hat-trick against Chelsea at Goodison Park in September, he fell out of favour at Everton and chose to move on when Norwich City came in for him in the January transfer window.

His £8.5million transfer to Carrow Road certainly resulted in him playing regular first team football once again. However, he was unable to help Alex Neil’s team avoid relegation from the Barclays Premier League.

Roberto Martinez, the manager who had refused to pick Naismith at Everton, was sacked last month to bring his underwhelming tenure in Liverpool to an end. Should he just have stayed patient, remained where he was and fought for his place? He would still be at a top flight outfit if he had.

Throw Scotland’s bitterly disappointing failure to qualify for the Euro 2016 finals – we will be the only one of the four Home Nations not involved in France in the coming weeks - into the mix and it has, no doubt about it, been an upsetting spell for Naismith.

The former Kilmarnock and Rangers player has certainly had his spirits lift by meeting up with the national squad and being involved in their end-of-season double-header against Italy and France. He is, though, more than comfortable with the decisions he has made.

“When you come away with the international squad it’s always a different atmosphere and a different group of guys,” he said. “It has helped to take my mind off what happened at the end of the season.

“You have to look at your own performances when you’re part of relegation. It was disappointing, but I knew it was a possibility when I signed in January. When you get older you want to be playing first of all and winning which didn’t happen enough. I want the next season to start now to change it.

“It’s going to be different for me because I’ve been in the Premier League since I moved to England, but my decision to move was so I could play more. I don’t regret my decision despite the manager leaving Everton. A new manager could have come in and not liked me and I could have been 30 trying to find a new club rather than 29.

“I wanted to go in the summer, but the manager wanted to keep me and by January it was too long. I didn’t start for Everton at the start of the season. I was coming on as a sub. I did well in the Chelsea game and played a few games, but was out of the team again. I’ve never looked back and regretted any move in my career and I still don’t. I’ll do all I can to help Norwich improve and get back to the Premier League.”

Despite allowing his thoughts to stray to the longevity of his career, understandably given that he is set to turn 30 in September, Naismith is confident he still has many years at the highest level ahead of him for both club and country. In fact, he believes his best football may still be to come.

“I feel as if I’m in my peak years,” he said. “People used to look at thirtysomethings as being beyond their best years, but if you look at most of the top players now they’re anything from 28 to 33.

“It’s a good time for me. I’ve probably got more knowledge now of nutrition and understanding my body. You’re weekly programme is much more structured and you know what works for you. I’m pretty comfortable with where I’m at.

“When I was at Rangers and Davie Weir was there he always told me to play for as long as I could and I spoke to Kris Boyd recently who said you realise you want to play as long as you can. You start to think about what is next as you get older and you just want to keep playing and enjoy football more.”

The meeting with France tonight is a daunting one. Didier Deschamps’s team, who many fancy to win Euro 2016, will be playing their final warm-up match before the finals and will not be taking the exercise lightly. Their objective will be to record an emphatic and confidence-boosting victory.

Yet, Naismith, who is approaching his 50th cap for Scotland, appreciates the opportunity to play such outstanding opposition, as he has throughout his playing days, and is looking forward to testing himself against some of the most revered players in the world game.

“When you sit down as a group of players you chat about what you will do next, but not many footballers know,” he said. “You just fall into things in football and it snowballs from there.

“You just try and live for today and try and enjoy it. As you get older you appreciate the situations you’re in, like now being away with Scotland and playing against some of the best players in the world.

“France could easily win one of the next two tournaments. When you look at their squad in every position it’s incredible the quality they’ve got. A lot of them are guys you haven’t heard too much about - they’ve just burst onto the scene. And they’ll all be looking to stake a claim for a starting place.

“We need to be realistic and realise it will be a tough test and do better than the Italy game. I’ve played against a lot of the French guys in the Premier League and you’ve got to enjoy it.”