SCOTT BROWN has been involved in the most bizarre war of words with the Hearts manager Craig Levein over the past few days. It got to the stage where Brendan Rodgers had to get involved to brand the Hearts boss as being ‘obsessed’ when it comes to ‘Brownie’ – don’t know why but hearing Brendan say ‘Brownie’ always makes me laugh!
The Hibs manager has been speaking about ‘Brownie’ too and he remembers the current Celtic captain as being “a gobby little f*****!” when he played against him in the Celtic Hibs matches.
Neil Lennon was speaking to Paul Dykes on A Celtic State of Mind podcast. This brilliant Celtic podcast has now found its permanent home at The Celtic Star.
Lenny remembered a young Scott Brown as being ‘gallus’ just like himself at a young player. Unlike Levein, the current Hibs boss is a big fan of the Celtic skipper!
There’s no doubt that the battles the two enjoyed on the park, as Lennon’s playing days were coming to a close and Brown was the young pretender in an impressive Hibs side, helped get Brown the move to Celtic. Rangers of course were also very interested in signing the player at that time but thankfully he ended up at Paradise.
A young Scott Brown certainly left an impression on Neil Lennon.
“I played against him a few times and he was like me, he was a gobby little f*****!, ” he told Paul Dykes.
“He was as gallus as they come, you know? He still has a brilliant engine, and at that age when he was 19/20, he had phenomenal running ability and he could handle the ball and he’d like a tackle and liked giving it out.
“He was all personality, but I don’t think that should shy away from the fact that he was a very, very good footballer.”
When Lennon’s time was up as a Celtic player his replacement was Scott Brown. Lenny headed to Nottingham Forest for a short spell while Brown has gone on to win 14 trophies at Celtic, including becoming a Treble Winning Captain last season, and there is the promise of much more to come.
By the time Lennon came back to manage Celtic, Brown was developing from the young firebrand into an influential leader of men on the park.
“He’s had his ups and downs, on the main he was fantastic for the four years I was there as manager,” Neil Lennon told A Celtic State of Mind Podcast.
“I think he had a little dip under Ronny Deila because of injury and things weren’t going so well.
“But I think in the last 18 months or so under Brendan, we’ve seen what a superb player he is.
“He has the respect of the dressing room, respect of his peers, respect of a lot of people in and outside of the game.
“I think he’s had a stellar career, he’s had a magnificent career and long may it continue. He’s a good lad, he’s got this reputation that we ALL get.. we all get. “Sometimes they’re true, sometimes they’re not so true and sometimes these things get blown out of proportion, ‘he’s this, he’s that’…. He’s not.
“Tony Mowbray made him captain and when I got the job I decided to keep him captain because he had a bit of rascal in him but sometimes the rascals develop into leaders and he’s certainly done that.”
You will LOVE the Neil Lennon interview on A Celtic State of Mind Podcast. Have a listen using the link below or find it on all the usual channels. And have a listen back at some of the early Podcasts from this year featuring old board Direct Tom Grant, politician Tommy Sheridan, the original holy goalie John Fallon and former Celtic striker Frank McGarvey.
Every one of these pods from 2018 are excellent and after you have enjoyed them you can listen back to the 2017 ones too!
