Brown and Logan have no bad blood, insists Cormack
Aberdeen chief says Tonev incident is in past between veteran and new No.2
WHETHER they admit it or not, most Aberdeen supporters would have jumped at the chance to sign one of the most successful footballers this domestic scene has ever produced.
The best measure of that can be found in Celtic’s bid to keep their captain at the club, something that Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack insisted they tried ‘extremely hard’ to do, speaking at a virtual supporters Q&A last night.
Scott Brown will join up at Pittodrie this summer to assist new manager Stephen Glass, while continuing his playing career. Nearly a fortnight on from producing a man of the match performance in the third Old Firm encounter of the season, he still evidently has much to offer on the pitch as he transitions to life off of it.
The combative midfielder’s Parkhead career had looked to have fizzled out at points throughout the season, but that performance showed while he cannot go on forever, it would be naive to write him off just yet.
However, some fans had separate issues with the announcement of the Celtic captain. Namely, the fallout from Aleksandar Tonev’s racial abuse of Shay Logan.
The Bulgarian winger arrived in Scotland on loan from Aston Villa in 2014 when Celtic were under the stewardship of Ronny Deila. But he is not best remembered for positive contributions on the pitch. Tonev was banned for seven matches after being found guilty of using “abusive language of a racist nature” towards Logan in a match between the two sides that September.
Brown backed Tonev publicly, claiming that all the players in the Celtic dressing room believed his innocence, prior to his appeal of the charge, which Tonev lost.
Logan this week completed a loan move to Championship outfit Hearts for the remainder of the campaign. And, while it is unlikely the right-back
will prolong his seven-year association with Aberdeen when his contract expires this summer, it is a possibility the two could share a dressing room.
Cormack addressed the incident and assured fans of the character they were bringing north this summer.
“Tonev was found guilty of abusing Shay and was rightly punished,” he commented. “We as a club stood up for Shay.
“But the only time Shay thinks about it is when others bring it up. There’s no issue between Shay and Scott. Both are tough competitors on the field.
“Rightly or wrongly, players invariably support what their team-mates say to them. That does not make them guilty of the crime their team-mate is punished for.”
Brown was lauded for a pre-match gesture before the aforementioned draw with Rangers this month. He sought out and embraced Glen Kamara during the warmup, after Kamara said Slavia Prague defender Ondrej Kudela racially abused him during a Europa League match.
“In Scott’s case, we all saw him in the spur of the moment go over to Kamara and show solidarity when Celtic played Rangers,”
said Cormack. “Scott has led players of all backgrounds for the best part of 15 years.
“He is today different off the field to his on-field character as many people will know.
“The charitable work he does goes above and beyond. As such, the board is convinced of Scott’s character and credentials.”
With the former Scotland captain intent on pursuing a career in management after he does finish playing, the move to Aberdeen appeared a good match. But, the announcement of Brown was one of football’s worst kept secrets and widely rumoured in the days prior to the news’ conformation.
That evidently irked some supporters, as Glass and
Brown were confirmed soon after Cormack had reiterated, seemingly in an attempt to buy time, the process of appointing a new management team would take “as long as it would take.”
Supporters quizzed Cormack during last night’s Q&A in regard to whether the ‘process’ to find a new management team that would steer Aberdeen to the promised land was in fact a smoke screen concealing the inevitable arrival of Glass and Brown.
The chairman insisted in response that while signing Brown was a coup alongside the appointment of new boss Glass, a rigorous recruitment process ran its due course.
“There were four manager positions became vacant one after the other in England and we knew candidates were applying for these roles too,” he said justifying the swift appointment. “Of the eight we shortlisted, four of the eight we shortlisted within two days of the RedTV interviews when I said that it will take what it takes. After two-hour in-depth interviews, we reduced it to two candidates and of the final two, Stephen had the better overall credentials.
“Every candidate was asked who’d they bring in. The reason the Scott decision happened fairly quickly was that we knew that Stephen wanted to bring Scott in and we knew Celtic were trying extremely hard to keep him. Scott was part of the team that Stephen believed would come to Aberdeen.
“The board met on the Monday night and we unanimously agreed on Stephen. He was never offered the job until I called him. Those who know me know that I’m competitive and I’ll always choose the best person for the job.
“After Stephen found out, we immediately set about getting Scott as Celtic did everything to keep him right up until the hour he signed his contract.”