STILL LEADING FROM THE FRONT

Brown sets the pace in training and leaves McGregor awestruck

AFTER ten years as a Celtic player, Scott Brown has discovered his second wind. Brendan Rodgers put his players through the hell of the hated beep endurance test in the Dubai sunshine yesterday morning, the captain’s determination to lead from the front at the age of 32 demanding a level of respect grudgingly shown on Scottish soil.

Rival fans loathe him, Celtic fans love him. The Tartan Army loiter somewhere in the middle. Amongst younger club-mates, there is no split in the jury.

‘There were five or six of us left at the end,’ revealed Callum McGregor.

‘It then went up a level and we all dropped out at the same time.

‘It was myself, Broony and KT with a couple of others.

‘Broony is probably one of the best captains Celtic has ever had. And we’re lucky to be led by him.’

The suspicion is rivals despise Brown because they would love to have him in their team. His colleagues simply appreciate the fact he is one of theirs.

Slowly, however, Celtic are beginning to realise Brown can’t go on forever. Ninth in the list of all-time club medal winners with 14 trophies, he is only the third Parkhead captain to lead the club to a domestic treble. To bracket any Celtic skipper with the first British captain to lift the European Cup is a huge call. Yet if Brown leads Celtic to a second consecutive domestic treble, he will do something even Billy McNeill couldn’t manage.

‘You don’t meet a lot of people in football who are as good as he is,’ added McGregor. ‘If you are lucky enough to be part of that and be beside it, then you have to learn from it. It would be a shame not to learn from it.

‘I’m trying to take as much as I can from what he does on the pitch and off the pitch, take that into me as a person and go forward to try to lead the group as well.’

McGregor subscribes to a popular theory. Brown will only really be missed when he is no longer there, breaking up play and driving Celtic on. ‘Once he’s maybe finished you will see a lot more people speaking about him,’ added McGregor.

‘You can tell when he doesn’t play in a league game then it’s that wee bit “off” it — and when he comes back in, you see the drive he has and the way he plays.

‘You’re looking round and he’s always there. So when he’s not there — if he’s suspended or whatever — it’s strange. That just shows how big an influence and how big a character he is.

‘I think you can see he is a fierce competitor. It’s hard to describe in terms of what he’s like as a person round about the place. It’s always about setting standards and everyone follows them.

‘It’s a wee bit difficult to explain but he’s a top, top guy, probably one of the best captains Celtic has ever had.’ So it was, then, that Brown kept pace with team-mates years younger during yesterday’s gruelling, slightly brutal, beep test. ‘We could come here and treat it like a holiday but that’s not going to happen,’ said McGregor. ‘But the beep test was tough. There wasn’t much joking or laughing from the boys. I was ticking the boys off in my head as they were dropping out but there was a competitive edge to it.’

Asked who dropped out first, there is no sparing of names. No respite for the guilty.

‘Wee Shug the kitman. The gaffer did it as well,’ replied McGregor.

Mercifully for the players, none of them fell by the wayside before the manager.

‘Could you imagine it?’ laughed McGregor. ‘He’d be sent home...’

A culture of relentless hard work remains the key to remaining a step ahead of the rivals. Anyone dropping below the standards or swallowing the myth perpetrated down south that playing for Celtic is easy is quickly shown the error of their ways. ‘You see a lot of people come here and not actually realise how big a thing it is,’ admitted McGregor. ‘That when you’re playing on a Saturday, you are playing for that Celtic community. It’s more than just playing a game.

‘You have seen them come and go over the years. A lot of the time it’s foreign players but that’s probably down to them not really knowing how big Celtic is. I think there are a lot of Scottish and British boys talking to them and saying: “Right, this is a massive club and you need to be at it every week”.

‘The Scottish boys know what it’s all about and, even in training, the standard is set by Broony and the guys who are on it every day.

‘That’s what you need. You need a good group of British-based players who want to work hard and set the tone for the other players.’

At 32, the beep test may not be the only ordeal German defender Marvin Compper has to face this week.

McGregor refuses to rule out the possibility of the new Bhoy facing an initiation ceremony.

‘We might stick that one on him and see how he handles it,’ he said.

‘All the boys are great with the new guys coming in.

‘It’s a good group of boys to come into. I’ve spoken to Marvin a few times and he seems a nice big guy. There will be no problems with him settling in.

‘The new guys come in and we try to show them just how big the club is and that sets the tone and the tempo for everyone else going forward.’