Of all the manufactured media controversies of this season so far, the one about the future of Scott Brown is the least concerning to me. Linking him to Australian clubs and MLS sides is a good day for the headline writers, but it doesn’t change the realities.
Scott Brown is on the brink of a place in history which no-one Celtic captain will ever get again.
Ten in a row is immortality.
It is payback for the cheating and corruption of the 90’s. It is justice. It is revenge.
The man who stands there on that day holding the league trophy up will have righted a gigantic wrong and re-wrote the record books, and that individual will certainly be well compensated for his trouble. That person will be Scott Brown.
By the time it happens he might not be a guaranteed starter every week. That’s one reality, and it’s one that Scott has to consider. But he will have the armband. He will be the man the others look to as their leader, just as they do right now.
And I wouldn’t count on him missing a lot of games; he’ll play more, many more, than he doesn’t.
The question has been popping up on various forums and fan threads; do we really need Scott Brown? It’s a daft one if you ask me; the man has been a stalwart of this team up until now and will continue to play a role going forward.
But we could survive.
Losing a key player sometimes hurts a team, but we’ve shown we are adaptable.
Yes, we could cope with it. No, I don’t think it’s the desired outcome. And I do not believe that it will happen anyway. The issue doesn’t arise with Brown. He knows he’s respected and loved at Celtic and he loves and respects the club in turn.
I think Scott will sign a new deal in due course. Brendan is right to give him the time and space to make the decision; that’s what you do with the players who have earned that loyalty and that respect. But nobody at Celtic is panicking and nor should they.
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