SCOTT BROWN the other day joked that the first thing he’d do if he was the Celtic manager would be to give himself a new six year contract.
A while ago he ruled out the prospect of ever going back to Hibs to finish his playing days, saying he planned to see out his playing career in the green and white Hoops. The Celtic captain is relaxed about the new contract that he will shortly sign – he enjoys an excellent relationship with both Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers and CEO Peter Lawwell.
We have all had to endure during this woefully long International break – and there’s only one more sleep to go before we see the return of Celtic – a stream of stories surrounding our manager and our players, who are apparently all about to leave.
Indeed the speculation about Rodgers leaving has moved on to create it’s own sub-section for debate – who will be the next manager coming in to replace Brendan who is apparently desperate to leave.
The Aston Villa speculation started in earnest the day we beat St Johnstone 6-0 – it seems so long ago now! Brendan told them that there had been no approach from the former European Cup winners and that he wasn’t interested in leaving Celtic.
Villa as things turned out, didn’t approach Celtic or Brendan Rodgers and instead appointed the bloke from Brentford. Egg on their faces isn’t something that worries the hacks though and they simply looked at the next possible vacancy in England – they went for Newcastle United – and reckoned that IF they lose a few more games then Mike Ashley could decide a change is needed and may decide to appoint Rodgers. Rodgers to Newcastle United became the story.
It hasn’t got to the stage where Brendan has had to deny that there has been contact and state that he isn’t leaving Celtic etc – partly because he’s probably been having a few days away from it all with his family. They can ask him on Saturday though.
But the sub-plot has moved the speculation business on a notch or two and that is keeping the hacks and the former players, now turned pundits busy. Charlie Nicholas was just sitting there thinking that when Brendan leaves the Celtic board will be very keen indeed to re-appoint Neil Lennon as his replacement.
Nicholas isn’t liked by anyone at Celtic and somehow he seems not to like the club he grew up supporting, how that happened is a mystery and is almost as strange as Pat Nevin waking up one day to discover that he had turned into a Hibs supporter.
Can you imagine how he really feels as the goals are scored tomorrow at Celtic Park? Is he sick to his stomach because Celtic have scored, is he delighted that Hibs have found the back of the net?
It’s hard to take people like Nicholas and Nevin seriously. Yet Nicholas started the narrative and it is grows legs. The much more respected Chris Sutton picked up on it this morning in his own newspaper column. He reckons that Brendan is looking to leave and if he goes then his mate Neil Lennon would be the ideal candidate to replace him. See what Charlie started?
It fills the column inches, gets Sutton his fee and is built on the premises that he reckons Brendan does want a move.
Yet the Celtic manager has said he is happy at Celtic and plans to see out his contract.
The Scott Brown story this morning is even more bizarre. A franchise bidder – not a club as such – is trying to start up and a link with someone like Scott Brown gives them international media attention. There is zero in this story and if Scott Brown did decide he wanted a change then there would be many more attractive options open to him – and he might want to explore these before deciding on where he’d go to next. The Melbourne start-up would seem like a rank outsider.
But Broony won’t bother because he is perfectly happy at Celtic and only yesterday talked about staying at the club BEYOND his playing career.
Once these stories have been created they hang around for a while like a bad smell. There is an angle from the other side of the story – Birmingham, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Melbourne media will pick up from their own point of view. Others will comment and that will be lifted and reported and on it goes.
The click baiters will be all over it from both the Celtic end of the story and the other clubs mentioned and they have been particularly active in covering Celtic ‘stories’ recent.
Even some of our own Celtic sites will cover these stories dutifully, although some will point out they are complete nonsense – the Scott Brown to Melbourne story really is a corker, see Video Celts for more on that.
