Saluting Celtic Captain Scott Brown As He Prepares For Game 400!

When you watched Celtic captain Scott Brown last season you got the feeling that the midfielder was winding down his career.

The midfielder was sluggish, slow and struggling to get around the pitch during Ronny Deila’s last year in charge at Parkhead.

But when new boss Brendan Rodgers walked through the doors at Celtic Park he was quick to point out that Brown was a player that he had long admired.

Since the arrival of Rodgers, Brown has been superb this term and is once again bossing midfield battles.

Tonight he’ll captain the Hoops as they face St Johnstone in Glasgow and it will be his 400th appearance for the club.

He joined the Scottish champions nine and a half years ago and he has consistently been one of their top performers since then.

To be honest, Scott is a funny footballer to define. As a midfielder he’s not the best of passers, nor the best tackler and he’ll not score double figures in a season.

At Hibs, some serious felt that Kevin Thomson was the better talent. Within a six month period Thomson joined Rangers and Brown made his £4.4m move to Celtic.

Both are good friends but by comparing the two, you can see why Brown has had the better career and what makes him a good footballer.

See Thomson, like Brown was decent at everything needed in midfield but wasn’t fantastic at anything. But where Scott excelled was in his commitment, passion and energy.

When fit, he’ll make lots of runs to help the forwards and his defence.

His aggressive, passionate nature sees him bristle with confidence in the bigger games and that attitude rubs off on those that play around him. He really is a leader on the pitch.

Like Neil Lennon, he enjoys living on the edge and even seems relishes it. Against Rangers on Hogmanay he looked out of sorts until he got booked and that actually seemed to settle him down!

Having won eleven major honours at Parkhead, (including six league titles), a number that will only get higher, he’s had plenty of standout moments.

Of those moments the one that really stands out must be his goal and celebration against Rangers at Ibrox early in 2011.

Full-back Mark Wilson touched the ball back towards Brown at the edge of the Rangers penalty area. Scott then took a touch before rapping his left boot around the ball and it curled into the opposite corner of the net and beyond Allan McGregor.

It was a fantastic strike and it brought the game back to two each.

It was the celebration that will go down in Celtic folklore. As Brown turned to celebrate he found El Hadji Diouf was beside him. Now Diouf had a couple of fiery games before against Celtic and was hated by the Hoops fans after he had spat at one of them during his Liverpool days. Brown and Diouf had also had an ongoing battle throughout the game. So when the Hoops captain turned and noticed the Gers forward he just celebrated right in Diouf’s face. Doing what the Celtic fans affectionately call the ‘Broony‘.

That celebration cemented Brown’s status as a fan favourite as it showed just what it meant to him to be the Celtic captain.

Now some have always stated that Brown has lacked ambition by not going down to the English Premier League. But everyone’s different. At Celtic, the midfielder is a star, that might not be the case down south. Plus some people like to stay in the same area all of their days and be near their family. By all accounts Scott Brown still stays on the east coast and didn’t fancy moving to Glasgow, never mind leaving for another country.

At Celtic, he has won titles, plays in front of 60,000 adoring home fans and has played in 72 European fixtures (a Celtic record).

Plus he’s now playing under a manager that really seems to understand him and get more from him:

“He sets an incredible example,”

So instead of being critical, I think people should appreciate the fact that a player has managed to stay at a side like Celtic and continue to influence games.

So congrats to the Celtic captain on yet another tremendous achievement!

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