Godfather 8 V Cesar 2
Aberdeen ready to receive the Don of Scottish silver but will Broonie follow Big Billy’s route back to Paradise?
DON Broonie.
It may sound like a fictional character plucked straight from the script of one Francis Ford Coppola movie too many.
However, it took a huge step closer to becoming reality yesterday when Stephen Glass was named as Aberdeen’s bossin-waiting with Scott Brown’s confirmation as his assistant expected to follow this week.
There could, of course, yet be some last-minute interventions and it was intriguing that Brown’s name was nowhere near to be seen when Glass was officially announced.
But, assuming there is no late change of heart and the contracts are indeed signed off, Brown’s imminent capture has a touch of Hollywood about it.
Forget The Godfather Part III.
This would be more like The Godfather 8 given that’s the number with which Brown has become so synonymous during 14 years as the enforcerin-chief of Celtic’s trophyhoarding monopoly.
Who knows, this could also become a modern-day remake of one of the greatest stories these two clubs combined to tell. Let’s call it Cesar II. In 1977, on the recommendation of Jock Stein, Billy McNeill made the same journey to the north east.
Over the course of the next 12 months the foundations were laid for what was to become Alex Ferguson’s big red powerhouse.
In that one season McNeill also did enough to convince Stein he was ready to return to Celtic Park as his replacement in the hotseat, fast-tracked straight into the job he coveted more than any other.
Even at the time of his appointment, Aberdeen believed McNeill was only really theirs on loan given he’d left Glasgow’s east end as the most decorated captain in the club’s history.
And it could turn out to be a remarkably similar narrative where the career path of Brown is concerned.
After emulating McNeill’s achievement of captaining the
It’s a ballsy move by Brown given the security he is almost certainly giving up
club to nine successive titles, only to ultimately falter at the 10th hurdle, the easy option for the 35-year-old would have been to sign a new one-year deal at Parkhead and cement himself into the brickwork behind the scenes at Lennoxtown.
Given the enormous scale of his contribution – with 10 titles and another 12 Scottish and League Cups under his belt – it stands to reason there would be a job for life if he felt it was an offer he couldn’t possibly refuse.
But given the lack of clarity as to what the future holds – or what his place in a new-look set-up might look like – Brown has decided his own best interests will be better served with a fresh start.
He’s much more astute than he likes to make out.
Self-deprecation may be his trademark but he’s much brighter than this cultivated image suggests, which is probably why he has chosen to travel a different path.
That it just happens to be the same one McNeill forged all those years ago is a romantic twist of fate rather than an act of deliberate design.
And yet here he is, nonetheless, ready to flee the nest and spread his wings into the management game.
If nothing else, it’s a typically ballsy move by Brown given the security he is almost certainly leaving behind.
And yet one look across to Celtic’s dugout last weekend probably helped to make the big decision a little easier to make.
John Kennedy has spent 10 years building a reputation for himself as a coach at Celtic.
Throughout that decade, thousands of bibs and cones have been dished out.
Along the way, he has learned his trade under some of the best in the business and even now Brendan Rodgers is more than happy to give glowing character references on his behalf.
But Brown may look upon Kennedy’s current predicament and wonder if it has all been worth it. Shoved out front into a full-blown crisis with next to no chance of securing the top job for good.
Forget the consolation of a 1-1 draw with champions Rangers on Sunday. Kennedy would need to have scudded
Steven Gerrard and his players for five or six to stand any chance of being considered as a genuine contender for the role.
Not quite Celtic’s very own Graeme Murty but not all that far off it either.
These are the guys who sit around in training ground offices behind doors marked, ‘In case of emergency, break glass’.
And, clearly, Brown was not all that stimulated by the thought of doing something similar.
Rather, he has joined a club who, in their own hour of need, have opted not to break the Glass at all.
They’ve hired him instead while tempting Brown in too with the promise of an extended playing career as well as the irresistible lure of a senior backroom position.
There is a considerable element of gamble here too.
Glass and Brown may feel like a bold, ambitious appointment to Dons chairman Dave Cormack.
But with no real managerial experience between them, they are being tasked with replacing a club colossus in Derek McInnes, one of the shrewdest operators in any Scottish dugout over the last eight years.
It does feel as if Cormack may have pandered to supporters who, over time, had become, if not oblivious to what McInnes was consistently achieving, most certainly underwhelmed by it.
That old adage – be careful what you wish for – does spring to mind. And not too many of them will have been sitting with fingers crossed hoping to see old rival Brown ride to the rescue, which is what makes this such a gamble for both the new boss and his right-hand man.
If Glass should fail to get off to a flier in his first job, he will soon find himself being judged by the high bar McInnes left behind.
And, if an instant upturn in results is not achieved, then at the age of 36 Brown might find himself on the pitch shouldering most of the blame on behalf of players of a lesser quality.
He didn’t want to become that same fall guy at Celtic Park. In fact, he’s become increasingly irritated over the last 12 months by suggestions that his “legs have gone”, even though they looked to be exactly where they have always been at the weekend when he dominated the Rangers midfield.
He’s smart enough to know that when so many minds are made up, a tarnished reputation almost inevitably ensues.
On the flip side, if he can perform to that level at Pittodrie then the risk he and Glass have signed up for just might pay off.
Either way, the two of them are just about to provide another hugely intriguing plot twist to Scottish football’s unceasingly compelling script.
Don Broonie looks like being big box office.