TALKING CELTIC

SCOTT BROWN’S 400th appearance for Celtic puts him in a very elite group of players down through the decades.

Certainly, there aren’t too many players in the modern era who will represent Celtic 400 times.

In fact, there are only 26 players in the history of the club who can claim to have reached such a milestone.

It is testament to how well he has played for Celtic and over a significant period of time; to retain a place in the team for nearly a decade with what have been strong teams throughout those seasons points to a remarkable consistency. It takes some doing. When he first arrived at the club there were those who fancied him and those who didn’t but what I would say is that he has matured into a leader at the club.

Over the course of the last couple of seasons he has been the most influential player in the Hoops dressing room and this term I think he is playing the best football of his career.

He is strong and he is leaner than he has ever been. But more than that he has cut out a lot of needless bookings that he used to collect and developed into a player who has been a considerable asset to Celtic.

It is a tremendous achievement to reach a milestone of 400 games and there will not be too many players at his back who will go on to clock up that number.

He has a big decision now ahead of next season to make. As I say, this is has been the best football that he has ever produced during his time at Celtic and if he wants to maintain that standard then I think he might decide that it is best to walk away from further Scotland commitments.

He was asked back and returned to the fold for that game at Wembley but the game at Hampden against England comes on June 10th – just 10 days before you can expect Celtic to be reporting back for pre-season training.

Those Uefa Champions League qualifiers are the biggest games of the season for the club and I would think that from Celtic’s perspective having Brown properlyoperly rest rested will enable e them to get the best outt of him.

Of course, he is his own man. It will ill be his choice to make ke but I would suspect t that he might decidede that it is time e to hang up the Scotland jersey for good this time.

Not so Craig Gordon. His journey has been