Former Celtic and Scotland captain Scott Brown has pinpointed a link between Brendan Rodgers and Scotland boss Steve Clarke. The 35-year-old left the club in the summer after fourteen years and is on punditry duty as Scotland end a 23-year wait for an appearance at a major tournament. The Paradise legend is looking forward to the game against Czech Republic on Monday and thinks that things are coming together for Scotland at the right time.
Brown reckons that Jose Mourinho’s former protégées at Chelsea share similarities due to ‘The Special One’. Clarke and Rodgers were both on Mourinho’s staff as the Portuguese boss took English football by storm and now, the pair are excelling as managers in their own right. Speaking in his Record column (via Glasgow Live), Brown admitted that he saw parallels between Rodgers and Clarke.
“Scotland now move as a team, not as individuals. If you see the way they did it against the Dutch the other week, you realise how much hard work has gone in on the training ground to bring all that together.
“It actually reminds me very much of the way Brendan Rodgers got us playing at Celtic. It’s probably no coincidence that both Brendan and Steve worked under Jose Mourinho as younger coaches.”
“I can see similarities in their approach to management and I have to say it’s hard enough to do it a club when you’re working with the players every day. But it’s even more incredible that Clarke has managed to do it while going weeks and months without seeing them.
“It does feel that everything has come together for Scotland at just the right time.”
Clarke was interviewed for the Celtic job after Neil Lennon departed in 2014. The former Chelsea defender has been impressive as the national team boss, ending the anxious wait to get back on the global stage with Scotland. His set-ups are pragmatic if not sometimes predictable but, crucially, he makes his teams hard to breakdown and beat.
Brown excelled under Rodgers as Celtic won an Invincible Treble, a Double Treble and were on their way to a third Treble. The midfielder made the decision to pursue coaching and opted to take up a dual role in Aberdeen as a player/coach. Rodgers has since gone from strength to strength with Leicester, winning the FA Cup but narrowly missing out on the Champions League twice.
