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Brown Joins The List Of Legends And Will Be Remembered As A Celtic Great.

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Scott Brown will go down as a Celtic legend after completing his 400th appearance for the Hoops last night, against a robust St. Johnstone side.

It was just the type of game Broony loves being involved in.

Celtic toiled at times and squandered a plethora of chances but Brown was there to lead them to victory, something all great captains do. You can see it on the pitch; he dragged them over the line. 

For me, he’s been the best leader we’ve had since Roy Aitken and Paul McStay.

McStay carried a poor Celtic side throughout the barren spell of the 90s.

In fact, he carried the club at times and never gave up on Celtic. Aitken epitomised the Celtic fight spirit, their “never say die” attitude. How many last minute goals did the Bhoys score under his tenure, most notably in our double winning Centenary Year?

It could have all been different had English side Reading had their way back in 2007.

The Royals had been looking at Kevin Thomson but he opted to sign for Rangers with Brown snubbing the Premiership side to move to Paradise.

The reason for the snub was Broony felt Reading would be relegated and he was correct.

At the time Brown said: “If I had chosen Reading I would probably be fighting a relegation battle next season and then maybe disappearing into the Championship.” He added, “In two years’ time people would have been saying, ‘Remember that lad Scott Brown – whatever happened to him?”

I mean, yes – whatever happened to him?

Ironically, Brown was rejected by Rangers as a kid, for being too small, but was picked up by Hibs where he chalked up 135 appearances alongside the likes of O’Connor, Riordan, Fletcher and McManus. He caught Gordon Strachan’s eye who broke the transfer record between Scottish Clubs at £4.4m.

Rumour had it that he was set to join Thomson at Ibrox but the hearsay turned out to be smoke and mirrors.

With Celtic stretching the lead to 22 points in the SPFL, Brown will be rubbing his hands in glee with the prospect of the club picking up their sixth consecutive league title in a row whilst he’s Celtic captain adding to his other championship medal, to make it seven overall. In addition to these prizes, the Celtic captain has won the Scottish Cup twice and the League Cup on three occasions in his nine plus years at Parkhead.

Sadly for Brown his younger sister Fiona died of skin cancer in May 2008 – months after he joined the club. She was aged just 21.

He suffered this loss only two weeks after Celtic great Tommy Burns had died of the same illness. Unbeknown to the Celtic support, Brown had been playing on during such a difficult period in his young life. It’s a true mark of the character of our captain, and was an early indication of his determination to make his time here a succees. For Brown has been a model professional through all these long years.

 Almost ten years on , Brown is 31 years of age.

I’m certain that he’ll  want to be involved when Celtic reach the Holy Grail of 10-In-A-Row.

To my joy and that of my fellow Hoops fans, it was disclosed earlier this week that he’ll be rewarded with a testimonial later this year. No-one can deny him this honour and I’m sure Celtic Park will be packed to the rafters to enjoy it and heap the praise on Broony.

It would be a sheer act of folly if Celtic don’t offer Brown a contract extension too.

I would love to see him captain the club to the history-making tenth title. On top of such a great achievement I’m guessing it would rile a few over on  the south side of the river.

Speaking of which – some of his  greatest games in the green and white have come versus the Ibrox clubs.

Two names which spring to mind are El Hadji Diouf and Joey Barton.

Both mouthed in the run-up to matches. Both were sent packing with their tails between their legs.

The “Broony” was born in an ill-tempered affair against the spitting thug Diouf, and when Brown scored his exquisite equaliser that day he made way for the Ibrox striker standing, chest puffed out and arms in the air, right in his face.

Diouf had dismissed him as a “nobody” in the press, pre-match. The media loved it, of course, another in a long line of examples where they sold short the Scotland and Celtic captain, and were humilated along with his opponents on the park.

This cemented his reputation with our fans, and to this day we still remember it fondly and hold him in esteem for it.

Few other opposition players have suffered the humiliation he handed out to Joey Barton though.

He had chosen to broadcast to all and sundry, on social media, and to his pals in the press, that Brown “isn’t in my league”.

Celtic annihilated Barton’s Sevco team 5-1 with the Scouser turning in an absolute howler. He literally wilted under the pressure of that day and his bossing by our captain, and his post match comments and arguments paved the way for his Ibrox exit.

He who laughs as they say.

Despite his stated desire to help Celtic make an impact in the Champions League, Brown has only managed to help the Glasgow side reach the last 16 of the competition once – in 2012-13 – since he achieved that feat in his debut season. He will want an opportunity to set that right next year.

Similarly, his 51 Scotland caps – a number as captain – have come during a period during which the country has failed to reach a major finals.

It’s not all been plain sailing. Brown returned from injury in the latter part of last season and, frankly, was poor. My own thoughts were that Ronny Deila brought him back to soon. Deila knew how big an influence he was. I’d struggle to think who could lead the current side as well as Broony?

 Taking time out from Scotland duties served Brown well.

I’m not sure if there’s any real benefit to him returning to national duty but it’s something he loves doing.

 To his eternal credit, the first player singled out for praise from Brendan Rodgers on his arrival at Celtic was Brown.

Rodgers seems to have revitalised his captain. There seems to be a special bond between the two.

We have been the beneficeries of that.

And long may it continue.

Gavin McCann is a writer, blogger and Scott Brown fan, from Glasgow.

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