Everyone can have opinions and hang a sign outside the building .. my focus is making sure it’s all good inside the building
SAYS SCOTT BROWN
SCOTT BROWN believes Celtic are strong enough to rise above savage and harmful criticism.
The Parkhead skipper understands the realities of life at the club. He understands that everyone has an opinion on every single aspect. Some of it is constructive. Some of it is destructive. Brown accepts everyone will have a viewpoint but he simply can’t listen. The boys alongside him in the dressing room can’t listen. For a decade, Celtic have found their answers from within. This is a moment when togetherness and clarity must prevail, the sound of success again drowning out noises of dissatisfaction. Brown isn’t daft. He’s aware Celtic haven’t scaled the heights this term. At the same time, he rejects any notion they are plumbing the depths. Some criticism has been severe. A banner was placed outside the stadium yesterday, calling for manager Neil Lennon to go. Keyboards have been in flames for weeks, aiming abuse at the players and management. But Brown said: “We’re all together. We’re 100 per cent behind the manager and I think the fans are with us. Everyone’s got an opinion they can put on Twitter or put on banners. Social media now is extremely harmful to teams if you lose a couple of points.
“You don’t read too much, don’t go on Instagram and Twitter too much. You just worry about what’s happening in the building and make sure everything stays in the building.
“We’ve got to be bigger, better and focus on ourselves. We don’t worry about what’s happening outside.
“Everyone is welcome to their own opinion. Speaking to a lot of the fans out and about, they’re all behind us.
“Those are the fans we need to keep impressing and keep performing for, keep going out there and working hard for.
“Our fans have been fantastic over the 14 years I’ve been here. I’m sure once we get them back [into stadiums] they’llll be supporting us.
“We’re all strong enough ough to deal with the criticism. ism. It’s not always going too be nice and plain sailing. ng. There are going to be ups and downs.
“Everyone wants to put us down just now. w. The lads are sticking ng together through it.
“We’re working to get et those great times back k extremely quickly.”
Brown knows the e accusations from outside, one of which is that there are team-mates not trying hard for gaffer Lennon.
It’s a theory he dismissed as he added: “Everyone’s playing for the manager. The manager’s been fantastic.
“I want to win every game, every trophy that I’m involved in. It’s part of who I am, it’s part of who the manager is.
“He tries to instil a winning mentality in everyone. It’s a long season and people have to remember that.
“We have to start digging deep, performing well, scoring goals and defending as a team.
“We need to do it for the manager. He’s had a great playing career here, he’s had great success as manager here.
“It’s Celtic. As soon as you drop one point, there is always someone out there who knows exactly what formation you need to play.
“We need to keep proving the doubters wrong.
“We’ve done it before, had nin e fantast i c seasons and we’re in a Scottish Cup Final as well. We just need to make sure that now we start focusing on the Europa League as well and we start winning.”
Brown took that final point straight on to the team flight to Prague and will carry it into tonight’s clash with Sparta.
He said: “There’s pressure on our shoulders at Celtic to be successful but that’s a pressure everyone should thrive on.
“There are a lot of people writing us off. That’s when you want to come back.
“Everyone keeps writing me off and I keep wanting to come back, show everyone. Most of the lads have got that mentality. Our aim is to show that we can perform better.
“The performances have been up and down. We can’t keep using the same excuses.
“We have to make sure we get a good performance [in Prague] going into Ross County on Sunday and try to get that momentum going now.
“I get ththis motivation every year. CeltCeltic’s a big club. We expect e success. We need n to make sure we do d it on the park.
“We need to make sure su we get a win in Prague Pr to try to keep our ou group hopes alive.
“It’s going to be extremely ext hard because they the played really well here her but we need to fully focus and perform reall really well.”