After eight years being kicked up and down the park by Scott I am quite happy he is on my side now
THE dull thud of a barely legal tackle. The stone-cold stare emanating from a pair of menacing eyes. Jonny Hayes could mention many more reasons for finding Scott Brown such an aggravating opponent. Now the pair are on the same side, Hayes is privy to the other side of the Celtic midfielder’s persona and he likes what he sees. Neatly, he describes his new skipper as a ‘proper captain’.
There was a moment during Hayes’ debut against BW Linz on Wednesday night that summed up their new relationship. Flattened as he cut in off the right flank to threaten the Austrian side’s goal, Hayes looked up to find a concerned Brown on the case, watching his new team-mate’s back.
Linz enforcer Ante Anic got the stare.
‘After seven or eight years being kicked up and down the park by Scott I am quite happy, trust me,’ laughed Hayes, bruised but largely undamaged after his 45-minute introduction in a Celtic shirt in the town of Rohrbach-Berg.
‘On the first day, I was sitting having a chat with the gaffer and straight away he came over, laughing and joking — a completely different persona to the Scott I have played against.
‘I had met him a few times off the pitch and he has always been brand new to me, but to actually have him in my corner, I am looking forward to that. It was great to pull on the shirt for the first time but there were a couple of late tackles and straight away he was over looking after me, making sure I was all right. He is a proper captain. A proper football captain and a proper club captain.’
Always an affable character, fond of a blether, Hayes has slotted seamlessly into Brendan Rodgers’ group and, in addition to bonding with Brown, he has quickly struck up a rapport with the likes of Kieran Tierney and Callum McGregor.
The overriding priority is to establish equally strong relationships on the field of play. As Rodgers’ first summer signing, there is a natural focus on assimilating the Irishman into the team.
By no means a direct replacement for the departed Patrick Roberts, he is nevertheless being primed to compete with James Forrest for the same wide right role occupied by the Englishman during his loan spell from Manchester City.
The competition for a starting spot was underlined by the fact it was Forrest who scored Celtic’s winning goal in midweek but Hayes also brings versatility. As he proved at Aberdeen, he is equally adept on the other flank or even in central midfield and, on the odd occasion Derek McInnes would even start the 29year-old at leftback. Hayes knows his past excellence for Aberdeen will count for little as he seeks to nail down a place in Rodgers’ team. ‘Listen, you know they are good players but when you see it day in day out at training you can see there is a reason why Scott Brown is Scott Brown,’ said Hayes. ‘There is a reason Kieran has a reputation of being such a good young player. It is the work they put in. I am obviously seeing it first hand and I am enjoying it.
‘It will take a while, certainly, to get used to linking up with the attacking players. I will also need to get a relationship with Mikael Lustig on the right. The sooner the better.
‘Last season, I saw how Celtic play football from the other side. It is quite refreshing being on the same team as a lot of these boys now. I don’t really have to chase Kieran as much for a start...
‘It’s a different way of playing but having worked with the manager previously I had an idea of how he likes to play.
‘It’s just phenomenal how he has adjusted this team to play his brand of football over the past year. The sooner I get on board with that the better.
‘Every team I have been at has played differently. With Celtic being of a higher standard it is going to take a little while to adjust, but I am picking up things every day. Settling in with the lads has been the easiest part and the more games I play the more settled I will be.’
Hayes pulled off one of the more elegant tricks of the close season by managing to curry favour on all sides during his £1.3million transfer.
The subject of a £250,000 bid from Cardiff City in January, Hayes opted not to agitate for a move, instead signing a new contract on the understanding that he would be allowed to move at the end of the campaign should the club receive an appropriate offer.
News that Hayes was leaving for the Premiership champions was sweetened not only by the scale of the fee but also the gesture that saw the player offer to fund replacements for any Aberdeen jerseys purchased for next season bearing his name and squad number.
‘I went for dinner with a lifelong Aberdeen fan and good friend of mine in Glasgow last week,’ added Hayes. ‘He said that it seems both myself and the club have gone about things the right way. Aberdeen were fantastic with me.
‘The manager always said if a big club down in England or a Celtic came in I could go. Celtic was the only team in Scotland I could move to, a step up from Aberdeen, and as soon as they came in I was interested.
‘I would never want to leave a club on bad terms, particularly a club like that.’