It’s A Big Season For: Scott Brown

It’s sometimes a struggle to remember the giddy heights of the 2006/07 when the muted signing of Scott Brown was seen as a transfer coup d’état. It was a must have. He was the new black.

I’m scared to think off the lost hours I would have accrued if Twitter was the beast it was now trying to follow the saga of him and Kevin Thomson.

It was a big long saga that kept the E-Tims Rumour Mill – that weekly raconteur who you would ensure that you went out your way to read, is now largely redundant and is a bit like that fun bloke who always used to be down the pub but is now married with kids and you don’t see him for months on end –  going with meat for many months.

He also caused the famous Pieman to declare that Brown was definitely signing for R*ngers then some weeks later he signed for us.  I’m welling up here thinking about it. The £4.4m fee was an afterthought.

Now, as we lurch into the last year of the players contract the fee  is no longer an afterthought but a concern.

Brown has made 119 appearances and scored 11 goals in his four full seasons. He played 9 games less and scored 2 goals more for Hibs. This came as a surprise.

Brown was supposed to be a dynamic goal scoring midfielder. Well, at least that’s what I chose to remember. These thoughts mainly were born from two performances in against us in 05/06 – when he was superb and scored as Hibs tore us a new one at CP – and in 06/07 – again scoring but we were saved that day by a Big Bear Like Dutchman taking his home bow. He was also the reason that Roy Keane called it a day.

In his four seasons he has proven to be dynamic but not goal scoring. He has an unrefined style, that is so typically Scottish, of a dog chasing a crisp poke and would still be chasing that crisp poke a week on Wednesday if you didn’t tell it to stop.

Strachan claimed that Brown added a more defensive side to his game. I was hoping to argue that Strachan ruined that dynamic goal scoring midfielder that we signed but the stats say that’s not true.

I can argue that it was Strachan’s thinking that saw the players limitations highlighted on an almost weekly basis in what has seen our midfield become a resting place for plethora of dead centre midfielders unable to make it function in past seasons.

That is cruel, cruel assessment on the player. His peers voted him SPFA Player Of The Year in 2008/09. Sepp Blatter wasn’t involved in that vote. Respected coaches, and some not respected ones in the game laud the player.

This blogger thinks that since Lennon took charge Brown has been in his best form no matter what the SPFA said in 2009. A man management miracle.

This not to say that much like those who went before, when he has been deployed in the middle, his partners have had to ensure they are well warmed up and dosed with extra winter green. It’s a hard shift and a hard watch at times.

I no longer blame the player for this. Much like The Hangover Part Two something that works the first time round may not work second time round and too often managers believe that Brown can play in that mix in certain games.

In a strange way this is testament to his ability, performances and willingness.

The introduction of Ki, Ledley and Kayal have seen a dramatic improvement in Brown’s form. Never before has he had intelligence and legs alongside him in the midfield. Those players allow Brown to be Brown.

He seems to have been unleashed from his thinking role into an enjoyable role.  It suits him better to be out wide being that puppy desperately trying to catch that crisp poke and a pest.

His performance in the 2-2 draw at Ibrox sums up what he can do. It was a role made for him. Controlled, provocative and gallus. He left his foe gasping for air.

The £4.4m fee means that he is probably the highest paid player left at Celtic. This means that it’s a wage that we are unlikely to match now. The players head will have flickered with interest with the close to £40,000 a week that former Hibs colleagues earn fighting relegation in the EPL.

You don’t have to think to hard to see Brown in a Steve Bruce or Mick McCarthy team.

Just as the player who some have seen as the joker and the problem starts to prove his worth to a wider audience the spectre of him going raises it’s head.

It’s a big season for Scott Brown.

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