Scott Brown is our Captain – he’s been praised very highly by Brendan at every turn and at the moment is coming to the end of his best season in the hoops.
It seems like he’s wore the hoops forever but my first memory of Scott is playing for Hibs, he had jet black spiked black hair and I remember him having a boot at big Bobo. Now that takes guts, bravery and a little stupidity (if you’ve ever stood next to Bobo you’ll know what I mean).
There’s also a famous photo of Scott squaring up to Neil Lennon on the pitch during the same match. His confrontational nature one of his biggest assets when dealing with opponents.
When Rangers* (*in liquidation) signed Kevin Thomson Celtic knew that the fans wouldn’t stand for their rivals signing the best 2 young talents in the Scottish game. There’s a famous quote from Derek Johnstone who was certain that Broony was signing for Rangers and the Ibrox fans even chanted Scott’s name from the stands at Easter road, how we laughed when he rocked up London road to sign for Celtic.
When he arrived he flattered to deceive, many Celtic fans thought that we had signed the lesser of the two Hibs talents. Unknown to most, he was going through a terrible time in his personal life with the death of his sister yet he was expected to run out and perform week in week out.
When Gordon Strachan’s Celtic were going for the title Brown found himself benched with Robson and Hartley favoured in central midfield, many believe if that hadn’t happened we wouldn’t have won the league that year.
When Neil Lennon was manager – Scott was up against the likes of Wanyama, Ki and Ledley and couldn’t get a game in central midfield however Lenny found a place for him in the side playing right midfield.
Until this season it’s safe to say Scott still had his detractors.
With Gordon Strachan, Tony Mowbray, Neil Lennon, Ronny Deila and now Brendan Rodgers all choosing Broony to be their Captain clearly they’ve identified him as a great leader.
The turning point where Broony personally won me over was THAT goal at Ibrox where he equalised and the ‘Broony’ was born.
From that moment he’s never really looked back in terms of being liked by majority the support.
He has a great sense of humour which the fans love and you see it during most matches.
The midfielder has done some stupid things during his time at Celtic ; kicking Neymar at Paradise, a foul off the ball against Balotelli in the San Siro which lead to a goal and no doubt there’s more however some of his performances in Europe, against Juventus for example, when he went toe to toe with Pirlo will hopefully be what he’s remembered for when he hangs up his hoops.
This season Brendan has made Scott an integral part of his side and I would say he’s our most valuable player in terms of what the team misses out on when he’s not in the side. He really drives this team and has a great influence on the young players who all speak highly of him. He has matured on the pitch and has a great tactical brain.
As recently as Saturday against The Rangers Broony was again on another level and as much as we love it, the opposition hate it in equal measure.
This season we have seen the best of Scott Brown. Long may it continue.
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Hail Hail
