Celtic Leaders, Celtic Legends – Why Scott Brown is up there with Alec McNair and Billy McNeill

As we prepare to say goodbye to Scott Brown at the end of the season (it would be nice to say good bye to him with the Scottish Cup back in our possession once more) we await the historian who can make an effort to assess his enormous contribution to the club. In terms of medals and appearances, he ranks with the truly great, and he is one of the few players who can be compared with two greats of the past – Alec McNair and Billy McNeill.

Alec McNair, according to the Celtic Wiki, played 584 Scottish League games and 57 Scottish Cup games, won 12 Scottish League medals and 6 Scottish Cup medals. There was of course no Scottish League Cup and no Europe in his day, but he also won 7 Glasgow Cup medals and 9 Glasgow Charity Cup medals and 15 Caps for Scotland.

He played at centre half, right half but mainly right back where he was part of Adams, McNair and Weir and Shaw, McNair and Dodds. He was far too self-effacing to be captain for any length of time (he did the job occasionally and for a short time in his own right) but that does not mean to say that he was not a great leader.

On the contrary, he was a more than willing lieutenant to the four captains he worked under – Willie Orr, “Dun” Hay, Sunny Jim Young and Charlie Shaw. He was famously very supportive of young players, particularly those who showed talent but needed careful managing like Patsy Gallacher and Tommy McInally. He was not called the “Icicle” for nothing, and he was also known for his constant gentlemanly demeanour and behaviour on the park.

In everything he did, he was a credit to the club. No record exists of him ever being “booked” or suspended, and he was one of the few men who have ever played the game that seems to have been universally liked and respected. This is not to say that he didn’t tackle hard, nor that he did not find life tough. His wife died in 1915, but Alec kept on playing, travelling into Glasgow from his home in Stenhousemuir on the LMS railway. He was the mainstay of that brilliant Celtic team of the 1900s, the 1910s and the early 1920s, playing alongside men like Patsy Gallacher and Jimmy McMenemy. But Alec was the mainstay of that great Celtic side for over 20 years. These were difficult times, but McNair came through them all.

Billy McNeill? Well, you don’t get a statue erected of you on London Road for nothing. In Billy’s case, there were 23 medals – 9 Scottish League, 7 Scottish Cups and 6 Scottish League Cups. And is there another one? Yes, I think there is. A European Cup medal!

He played between 1958 and 1975, but for the first seven years, the club were going nowhere. But along came Stein, and everything suddenly clicked. How appropriate that it should be Billy who started it all with his glorious header in the 1965 Scottish Cup final; how appropriate that he should announce his retirement ten years later in 1975 after another Scottish Cup final triumph. McNeill was a leader.

A commanding centre half, particularly in the air, Billy really should have won more than his 29 Scotland Caps, although one would have to admit that Ian Ure of Dundee and Arsenal and Ron McKinnon of Rangers were strong competition. They were not however quite as good as the classy McNeill. (And all that is before we begin to talk about Billy as a Manager!)

He really captained three separate teams – the talented underperformers from 1963 -1965, the truly great side from 1965 – 1970 and the new developing side of the 1970s who were not always so good. But if we ever talk about the greatest Celt of all, then Billy McNeill must at least be in the frame.

So where does Broonie fit into all this? He is certainly “up there” and fit to be included in the company of the other two superbly great Celts. He has won 22 domestic medals with Celtic (and another one with Hibs) and he has been captain since 2010.

He has won 55 Scotland caps, and it is a record which speaks for itself. And yet, when I first saw him, I didn’t like him. That was when he was playing for Hibs – a feisty, moaning, aggressive character, picking fights with all and sundry. When he came to Celtic in 2007, those characteristics stayed with him, but he also gradually developed a sense of responsibility.

He still had his moments and was no stranger to trouble with the referees. Sometimes he was the victim e.g. when that now publicly acknowledged cheat Neymar managed to get him sent off in a European match at Celtic Park, but not always. But what could never be doubted was his commitment to the cause, for which he was prepared to run himself into the ground, and his strong hand on the helm whenever the team crossed the white line.

Like McNeill, he was obviously the captain of the side and the players all willingly looked to him for guidance. He played a huge part in the development of men like Callum McGregor and James Forrest, and he was the idol of the support, as the “Let’s all do a Broonie” chant would prove. Like Sunny Jim of old, he enjoyed being hated by the opposition support, possibly even seeing it as part of his job. His medals, his caps and the sheer amount of time that he lifted trophies with green and white ribbons on means that he too must be looked upon as a true Celtic great.

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Brown differs from the other two in the sense that the other two worked under a very strong and very permanent manager, Maley in the case of McNair, and Stein in the case of McNeill.

Brown on the other hand had Mowbray (sadly not up to the job) Lennon (whose departure on 2014 still awaits an explanation), Deila (competent but not spectacular) Rodgers (talented, inspiring but ultimately strangely treacherous) and then Lennon again when the team were clearly in decline, when the times were strange.

Lennon clearly did not address the problem of some obviously unhappy players, and also had the bad luck to run up against a better Rangers team than had been around for some time. This cannot have been easy, but Brown supported all four Managers, at least publicly. He was not born a Celt (nor was McNair, although McNeill was) but he very soon became one. Even in the gutter minds of those Celtic supporters who think they are clever by attacking Celtic players on social media, there are very few bad words said about Scott Brown. Supporters of other clubs will have a go at him – but then that is what he sees his role as. If the opposition do not like him, then he is doing his job!

So who was the best of them all? I’m not saying, because the game’s a bogey! Everything changes, and all that you can say is that each one of these three was ideal for the circumstances of Celtic at the time. The new leaders of our club – directors, managers, captains will have to be able to deal with the demands of the new circumstances of the times they live in. But they have the examples of these three as role models. And also in the future, I think we are going to see a stronger Aberdeen side than we have seen for some time!

David Potter

About Author

I am Celtic author and historian and write for The Celtic Star. I live in Kirkcaldy and have followed Celtic all my life, having seen them first at Dundee in March 1958. I am a retired teacher and my other interests are cricket, drama and the poetry of Robert Burns.

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