Former Celtic captain Scott Brown has paid tribute to Walter Smith, who died earlier today. The former Rangers and Scotland manager was a massive figure in Scottish football over the years and Brown, who was handed his first Scotland cap by the manager, has said that he will be missed. Brown mentioned the incredible friendship that Smith and Tommy Burns had during their time together at Scotland and beyond.
As reported by The Sun, Brown recalled Smith’s instructions ahead of his first cap as well as the enormous respect that everyone had for the manager.
“It’s so sad. Walter was a fantastic man and he was the one who gave me my first Scotland cap many years ago.
“He gave me a bit of advice. He went ‘Wee man, go and cause carnage. You are going on up front, go and cause carnage and get yourself a goal’.
“To be fair, I scored a goal but I was offside. It was a fantastic occasion.”It was probably one of the first times that I met Walter. He was this huge presence. You knew when he came in the room, everyone went dead quiet, everyone had this huge respect for him.
“I worked with him very closely with Scotland and I’ve got huge respect for him, especially what he did with Tommy Burns as well, carrying his coffin.”He tried to bridge the gap between the two clubs, which was fantastic at the time. Every time I met Walter he had so much time for every single person.”
Brown and Burns were close and for all, it was measure of Smith that he carried his friends’ coffin that unified the Glasgow divide. Likewise, Smith’s death has lead to an outpouring of tributes and respect with Celtic even flying the flag at Paradise at half-mast in tribute to the man.
After 22 trophies with Celtic, Brown left Celtic to reunite with his former Hibernian teammate Stephen Glass at Aberdeen. It means that Brown will lead the Reds out against Rangers tomorrow for what will likely be an emotional night at Ibrox.
