THE BROWN DILEMMA

Skipper must consider if it’s better to leave on a high or risk finishing up a bit-part player

Most final chapters for stellar names at big clubs are painful affairs

FOR all the romance that still exists in football, rarely do its gods grant its protagonists the happy ending they all crave.

Back in 2017, the finale to Francesco Totti’s Roma odyssey was fittingly gladiatorial. A substitute in a 3-2 win over Genoa, the standing ovation afforded to the 40-year-old ensured there wasn’t a dry eye inside the Stadio Olimpico.

Truthfully, though, most final chapters for stellar names at major clubs are painful affairs. Gary Neville recalled retreating to a toilet cubicle inside the Hawthorns on New Year’s Day 2011 to reconcile himself with the fact that his legs had gone and has regretted going on so long to this day.

These are the kind of thoughts Scott Brown will presently be wrestling with as he mulls over Western Melbourne’s attempts to take him to Australia this summer.

As the winner of 17 major honours at Celtic, his reputation and legacy are secure. It’s no stretch to say that since Henrik Larsson left the club in 2004, no player has had the kind of sustained impact as the Fifer.

But time waits for no one. And by rejecting the advances of the A-League newcomers in order to stay in Glasgow for another two years, Brown would risk the possibility that the enduring memory of him in a Celtic jersey would be that of a diminished force. Australian football would not be a cake walk for a man who turns 34 this summer. Far from it, in fact.

But it would make for a more forgiving environment than the one he has known as man and boy. There is much to be said for going out on a high, if, indeed, his side can yet emerge from a four-way title fight still wearing their crown.

Whether Brown was still suffering from post-injury ring-rust in the defeat at Ibrox last week or if the rigours of 15 years at the top of the professional game were finally taking their toll, one thing was abundantly clear: his partnership with Olivier Ntcham spectacularly malfunctioned.

So devoid of guile and energy were the pair that you had to remind yourself that just three months previously they had dominated Ryan Jack and Scott Arfield in a 1-0 win at Celtic Park in which Ntcham had scored. Talk about roles being reversed.

The galling thing for the 800 Celtic supporters in attendance at Ibrox wasn’t so much that the pairing had such an off day. It was that they were played together at all.

Because, notwithstanding their commendable displays in that opening Old Firm game, there is no question that Brendan Rodgers’ midfield had improved measurably in their subsequent injury-enforced absences.

Deprived of Brown through a hamstring twinge picked up in the win against Hibs on October 20 and Ntcham due to a thigh strain sustained in the Betfred Cup semi-final with Hearts eight days later, Rodgers rolled the dice and advanced to go.

With a new-look midfield deploying Callum McGregor as the deep-lying playmaker behind Tom Rogic and Ryan Christie, Celtic put five past Dundee, Hearts and Kilmarnock, pulled off their most complete display of the season to defeat RB Leipzig, won away to Rosenborg and retained the Betfred Cup against Aberdeen.

For all the recalibrated engine room failed to find a way past Livingston, it escaped no one’s notice that the return of Brown and Ntcham coincided with a draw at Motherwell and a costly defeat to Hibs which preceded their no-show at Ibrox.

Anyone jumping to the conclusion that the BrownNtcham axis never worked has a short memory, however. The pair were mainstays of the side which won a second successive Treble last year and were at the very top of their games in the 3-2 and 5-0 wins against Rangers as the race went into the home straight.

But whether through rustiness, a lack of form or, in Brown’s case, simply the passing of time, their partnership is no longer fit for purpose.

Had it not been for injuries to Mikael Lustig and Filip Benkovic at Ibrox and Rodgers’ desire to eventually replace Mikey Johnston with Odsonne Edouard, the Celtic manager would have broken it up by replacing one of the two with McGregor, his makeshift left-back.

Although Football Federation Australian denied Rodgers the services of Tom Rogic, with hindsight he will doubtless recognise that playing McGregor, Christie and Ntcham or Brown, with Jonny Hayes deployed at full-back, would have been the better starting option.

Now only ahead of Rangers on goal difference, albeit with a game in hand, Rodgers will return to domestic hostilities later this month with no margin for error. The mix-and-match management of a hectic December will go by the wayside, with his strongest starting 11 tasked with getting his side over the line. If that no longer contains Brown on a regular basis, the long farewell will surely have started.

For all the emotion associated with this, it might be the best outcome for all concerned. Something of a loose cannon when he first joined Celtic from Hibs in 2007, Brown had to fight hard for his place before developing into an all-action powerhouse.

Having scaled the mountain, he fell back off it again three years ago and cut a broken figure as Ronny Deila’s fate was sealed by a defeat on penalties to Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi-final.

He reinvented himself thereafter, striking a chord with Rodgers from the moment the Northern Irishman invited him to dine in his London home. Brown was reborn in Rodgers’ first season, going as far as to reverse his decision to quit international football.

Last year, his game reached new levels, his dominant displays easing Celtic towards an unprecedented double Treble and allowing him to sweep the boards in the player of the year awards.

No one among the Celtic support would begrudge such an iconic player a last big pay day in the sun — especially when the side has evolved so rapidly.

From the club’s perspective, they can rightly say they have offered the player excellent terms to stay on the back of a testimonial last year, with a prospect of a future coaching role being muted.

From Brown’s point of view, there might yet be the chance to play some part in the quest to land an eighth straight title before playing out his days in one of the world’s most desirable cities.

There’s much to be said for saying your fond farewells while your stock is still high. Miss your moment and the angst can last a lifetime.