‘We’d be lucky to have Brown for another year’
AS far as Callum McGregor is concerned, Scott Brown is the one in the Celtic dressing room who gives out the advice, so he wouldn’t dream of offering his captain guidance on what to do next in his career.
Celtic’s second in command is hoping though that Brown may just have the appetite for another year of leading this side as they try to regroup after this season to forget.
The Celtic skipper has roared back into the side in the last two games after a spell on the bench, putting in a man-of-the match performance against Kilmarnock and performing well against Motherwell.
Certainly, McGregor is in no doubt about the value Brown brings to the club both on and off the pitch, and he is quietly optimistic that the 35-year-old may just fancy sticking around after the summer.
“He has a huge impact, and write him off at your peril, because he’s going to come back,” McGregor said.
“He’s done it a few times now, and certainly the game against Kilmarnock, I thought he was the best player on the pitch. He was absolutely outstanding.
“The thing with Scott is that people underestimate how good a footballer he is and how good his football brain is.
“He plays in that position so well. He can take it, turn and play forward. He knows the position so well defensively, and he gives us a real base.
“Then there’s all the other leadership qualities that he has, and you can see it rubbing off on the team.
“Over the past 13 years he’s been right up there along with the best Celtic players that there’s been, and there’s a reason for that, it’s because he’s so good.
“I think he’s always going to have value to the club. Obviously, I don’t want to speak about what he should do or what he is going to do, that’s up to Scott.
“But I just always think he’s going to have value at this club, he’s such a big personality and such a big leader.
“As long as he wants to be at
Celtic, we’re lucky to have him.”
McGregor is hoping to build on the back-to-back wins that Celtic have strung together when they visit St Mirren tonight, which may be no mean feat given it was less than a fortnight ago that Jim Goodwin’s men won at Celtic Park.
The midfielder believes though that a win is essential, with the Celtic players still having designs on the title after Rangers dropped points against bottom of the table Hamilton at the weekend.
“I think that has to be the mindset,” he said. “I’ve said a few times that anything can happen in football.
“It just takes one weekend to change the balance of things. As I said, it has to be our mindset that we can still do it until it is mathematically impossible.”