This week, Scott Brown will play his 400th game for Celtic.
What a testament to his longevity, and loyalty, and commitment to our club that is. To give you a sense of what a big deal it is, consider that Barry Ferguson – darling of the Sevconites – made 430 for their dead club, having started his career there. Brown signed for us when he was 24 and had already played over 100 games for Hibs.
This guy has been an astounding signing for us, and a brilliant captain.
He has earned his place on the Celtic Way and I think he will be here for a few years yet, and that he’ll stay as a coach and perhaps one day even return as a boss if that’s something he wants to do. His importance to the last ten years at Celtic Park cannot be overstated.
Yet a lot of people in Scotland think he almost signed for Rangers.
In point of fact, it was never going to happen, as Scott himself has repeatedly said. One person was as responsible for pushing this fiction as anyone; Derek Johnstone, who used his newspaper column and his slot on Radio Clyde to push the worst sort of nonsense about the deal already being done. On one notorious occasion, when he was asked about the prospect of the deal he said it was certain and that Hibs would refuse further offers for the player, even if they were higher than Rangers bid.
He offered to resign if Brown did not end up at Ibrox, a promise he has ignored since with all the brass neck of a Donald Trump press officer. Perhaps one day he’ll say he didn’t lie, only that he was offering us “alternative facts.”
I knew Brown was going to Celtic even as he was saying this. A source I knew was very close to Peter Lawwell himself and he had spoken with the CEO who had assured him Brown was very amendable to the idea of coming to Parkhead.
The only issue would be money, that which the two clubs were able to offer Hibs to secure his services.
Lawwell, I was told, had been bullish about our prospects. “If it comes to a bidding war,” he’d said, “they can’t compete. We will win.”
Bear in mind that this was in 2007, a year before the financial crisis really hit home. Even then, five years before Rangers circled the drain, our board could see the writing on the wall and felt able to make such a promise and know they could back it up.
Looking back on it today, I can honestly say that this signing was a game-changer.
It was the first time we’d gone head to head with them over a player both clubs badly wanted to sign, and we’d simply outmuscled them. He was, then, the hottest property in Scottish football and once we were in the bidding there was never really any doubt who he would choose to come and play for. It was a signing we were determined to secure and the cash was there to make sure that it was done. Nothing was going to be allowed to derail that ambition.
This year will mark Brown’s tenth anniversary at our club. Some people have marriages which failed to last that long, and I would wager that most will never have been in one job that lasted a decade. Brown’s love affair with this club has real depth, and it’s undisputedly for life.
We can all pick a favourite Scott Brown moment, or game … mine (and I suspect many will agree with it) was the 2-2 cup match at Ibrox where he equalised with his storming left-foot strike whilst we had ten men on the park. His reaction to the goal – in front of El Hadji Diouf – was the stuff of legend.
He ran the show that day, in every way.
He has six league winners medals for our club – amazing when you consider this will be his tenth season here and he’ll certainly make it seven. He has also secured three league cups and two Scottish cups; if he can make it three this season he will have led us to the treble. That will cap a wonderful ten years, and set him up for a show-stopping testimonial.
But Brown isn’t finished yet, of course. Ten years have not dulled his appetite or his desire to succeed. Alongside Brendan Rodgers he has designs on more Champions League nights, more big occasions and more trophies to go with them.
What a servant he has been for our club. A decade after he was linked with a move to Ibrox, how glad we all should be that we had the juice to make him our player instead of theirs. The history books will record it as money very well spent.