So a lot has been spoken about our captain recently, most of it shit.
But one thing really rankles me on it and its this attitude that because he did not go down south it makes him less of a player, less of a man, as he “lacks ambition”
We know at the very top of that league there are better players than most leagues, but even at the top teams there are players you could characterise as dross, footballers who are not half as good as they think they are, and when you step down to the middle and bottom it’s even worse.
For me, the final straw was a caller on Radio Snyde who felt that Ferguson was a better player as he went down south.
Utter tosh.
So it’s time we looked at it the way it deserves to be looked at.
Let’s take a look at Scott Brown and ask why he didn’t go to England, and what makes him a great Celtic captain.
For Scott Brown There Are More Important Things Than Money.
There is no doubt at all that Scott brown could have earned more than he has at Celtic if he had gone down south.
Even as the highest player at Parkhead, it is insignificant compared to what he could have earned at even a mid-level EPL side.
Remember when Newcastle were definitely going to sign him and he “would be unable to refuse the money”?
Well he did, of course.
I daresay they aren’t the only ones who’ve courted him throughout the years. Brown is the kind of presence who could fill at a dressing room at most every club. I am sure there have been a few sniffing around him over the years, but he has found a club where he enjoys being there and where the fans treat him like a hero. Who wouldn’t want that? Who would want to leave it to become just another player elsewhere?
He is well paid at Celtic Park, after all, but he knows the most important thing that there is to know.
Money isn’t everything.
What Kind Of Career Would He Have Had At That Sort Of Club?
The worst thing is when he hear this “ambition” nonsense based on the idea that he could somehow achieve more in England.
Really? I have always thought football, and football achievement, was about winning things and making the memories.
Money in the bank is all well and good, but come the end of a career and the money does not give you memories, or the chance to make history, which are the things that Scott Brown has built at Celtic. There are winners medals, prizes, great days like cup finals to look back on.
Would he have been able to build that in England by moving to an also ran team?
One without so big a profile, one without as big a fan base, a team fighting relegation every year instead of challenging for honours?
And the answer, of course, is no.
Even players who are good enough to play for those kind of clubs, like Van Dijk … an astounding result last night is no guarantee that Klopp’s team is any closer to the kind of success Virgil has been searching for since he left Parkhead. Liverpool is an enormous club, like us, but he has to realise he might never again in his career pick up a league winners medal.
When you look at it properly, you see that this “lack of ambition” talk is simply nonsense.
Remember, they threw the same charges at the likes of Henrik and Paul McStay.
And I will come back to that later.
What Brown Values Most Is The Rarest Thing In Football; Loyalty.
Scott Brown is a loyal, honourable man.
Scott has gone through his share of personal tragedy and the club and fans were extremely supportive, as you would expect. Maybe he feels that loyalty should be returned. He has grown to love Celtic, because Celtic has been good to him and for him.
And Scott has honoured us with great service when he could gone elsewhere and made more cash.
We bemoan the lack of loyalty in the game. Think about how many of our marquee players from recent years haven’t even given us the term of their first contracts. People like Scott, who stay at a club for a decade or more … that doesn’t happen in the game anymore, or at least it’s very rare, but when it does it is used as a weapon against those practising it?
For not showing ambition?
Well, it is for some anyway.
But imagine he was an Ibrox captain? Would he have to accept such ridiculous criticisms?
So What The Hell Is All This Really About?
Well, it’s pretty easy to suss what this is really about isn’t it?
Remember that Scott turned down the previous Ibrox club to sign for us.
The famous clip of Derek Johnstone, where he said “the deal is done Scott Brown will sign for Rangers” where he said he’d resign if it didn’t happen?
Then, when he turned them down for us, all the talk of being dishonourable etc set in.
That’s also when the, so called “discipline” issue was raised, not before.
Now when you factor in that this has happened before to Celtic captains, this is a pattern of behaviour from the press and Ibrox about the fact they cannot have Celtic have a captain like that.
McStay held the club together in bad times.
The press wanted him gone so we would be more vulnerable.
Henrik Larsson was a world class footballer who also put money as a secondary concern.
It broke all of them for us to have him in our team.
Scott Brown is the latest.
He will not sit at back of the bus, is a fighter and wont accept second best, he is visible proof of what they are not, press and it galls them to have to fight that.
Scott Brown is the epitome of what our club is, victimised and fought against in every way, seen as second class … but now on top.
As James said the other day, this is Scott Brown hate, based on a much bigger hatred; the one that we are the best.
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