SCOTT BROWN has completed his own personal treble by adding the Football Writers Player of the Year to the PFA Scotland Award and of course he is Celtic’s own Player of the Year.
Recently, certainly since Craig Levein, practised his dark arts by suggesting that “Scottish football needs protection from Scott Brown, the Celtic skipper has come in for some outrageous challenges – the latest from Naismith at Tynecastle on Sunday.
But for the kickers and the losers who haven’t been able to get the better of Broony this season, the bad news for them is that the Celtic captain is going nowhere soon – in fact he’ll probably hang around longer than most of them!
“Gordon Strachan played on until he was 40, eating bananas and porridge,” Broony said yesterday.
“James Forrest now has two bananas every day because I told him that story — and I don’t even know if it was true!
“Gordon played in the English Premier League and it just shows you that if you look after yourself, continue training and don’t pick up too many bad injuries then you can keep going.
“People were talking about me retiring — but there’s NO chance of that happening in the next three or four years.
“As long as I keep producing the statistics I’m hitting just now and maintain my energy levels in the off-season I’ll go on as long as I can.
“When I first met Brendan Rodgers I said I would manage two years maximum.
“But he said if I got myself fit and looked after myself then we’d see how it went — and he was right because I’m still pushing on. I’m still enjoying it and I’ve won a lot of awards this season. But the main thing is we’re playing good football and winning games.
“I’m eating better, looking after my diet, and living better off the park. A couple of years prior to Brendan coming in training wasn’t as intense. Fitness levels have naturally gone up now.
“I was determined to prove a point to everyone because people were saying I was finished and that my legs were gone. I tried to be as fit as I could during pre-season but I got injured early on and then I really kicked on.
“I went back to Scotland and we did some running and I was flying and keeping up with some of the quicker ones, and that showed I could keep pushing on.
“I spoke with Gordon. I sat down and had a conversation and it was him that convinced me that just because I was 30 I shouldn’t believe everyone that says your legs have gone. For me, that was huge.
“When I went down and spoke with Brendan he said he wanted me in his plans for the next couple of years and to make sure I stayed injury-free and as fit as I could.
“I went out and worked as hard as I possible could have. In the first couple of weeks I got injured. It was hard around then as in the first competitive game we lost in Gibraltar.
“You’re thinking ‘Jeez we’ve not started well, against a part-time team’. But the conditions and the pitch didn’t suit us. We knew it would be totally different once we got them back to Celtic Park. Then our style slowly started to come through.
“Month by month, we started to get better. We understood every role and the way the manager wanted us to play,” Broony continued.
And he had a look back to that penalty shoot out semi final defeat to Rangers in April 2016.
“We looked sloppy all over the park in the semi-final defeat to Rangers in 2016.
“I’ve a lot of responsibility in the middle and I didn’t turn up that day and feel like I could keep pushing myself. But it’s probably the best thing that ever happened to me, to be honest.
“These awards still mean as much to me. In the last couple of seasons since the manager’s come in everyone has been on top form.”
