Walker a ‘poor man’s Neville’, blasts Brown
SCOTT BROWN, the Celtic captain, has launched a scathing attack on former Parkhead player Andy Walker and also revealed he has played his last game of the season now Celtic have all but clinched the title.
After a season blighted by injury and loss of form, Brown was back to his best on Saturday as Celtic defeated Hearts 3-1 at Tynecastle to effectively seal a fifth consecutive championship. Walker, a pundit for Sky Sports, has been a regular critic of Ronny Deila’s side this season, branding them “dull and uninspiring”.
He also called for Deila to be sacked in February following Celtic’s second loss of the season to Aberdeen. Brown took the opportunity to respond, labelling former striker Walker “a poor man’s Gary Neville”.
“At the end of the day people are going to criticise,” he said. “Andy Walker is one that goes out there and manages to do it, but he’s never had a manager’s job or knows what it’s like to be coming in here day in, day out. He’s pretty much a poor man’s Gary Neville. It’s every day, he does my f*****g box in.
“I’m sure he would say that when he was playing many years ago that there were so many coming out and slaughtering people too. But you think people are bigger than that and better than that and will maybe stick up for the club and manager. At the end of the day who cares, it’s only him.
“It’s the manager that has got it more than anyone else and it’s easy for him [Walker] sitting up there saying things [on television]. Anybody could do that but he walks out the tunnel and doesn’t even look in anyone’s eyes. So he obviously knows he’s done something wrong.
“He knows he’s been in this situation before and didn’t win that much when he was [a Celtic player]. Sometimes you’ve got to take it on the chin but maybe he is jealous.”
Brown, meanwhile, will sit out Celtic’s final three league games of the season and probably also Scotland’s friendlies against Italy and France as he looks to rest up ahead of the new campaign. The 30-year-old has been plagued with injuries throughout the campaign and hopes a break will allow him to return in better shape by the time the Champions League qualifiers roll around in July.
“I think that’s me done and dusted now,” he admitted. “I need to close down for a few weeks and just concentrate on my fitness, try and get back to getting around the park because I’ve been struggling to do that. I’ve got tendonitis in both hamstrings so I just need to chill, settle and go and enjoy my summer.”