Scott Brown has swapped winning trophies with Celtic for going into the ground-eating world of management.
There weren’t many better characters than Brown, who won 22 trophies at Parkhead, and is now trying to help Ayr earn promotion from the Scottish Championship.
One man who is playing under Brown is former Rangers player Jamie Murphy, and he shared an insight into what the Celtic hero is like behind the scenes.
At the age of 40, whilst Brown’s playing career has come to an end, he still has the legs to get involved in training at Ayr United…just!
Celtic hero Scott Brown in Ayr United training
Speaking on Open Goal, Murphy was asked about Brown getting sent off in a recent Celtic charity match against Feyenoord, and how that was mentioned among the group.
In training itself, Brown certainly gets involved, but Murphy explained that because of a ‘bad knee’, he doesn’t go in old school style.
Murphy made it clear that, ‘you can tell’, if Brown wanted to really go through somebody, then he could.
Si Ferry: “What about your manager getting sent off in the charity match?”
Murphy: “I did have a chuckle at that. It did get thrown in the group chat as well. He knows his stuff, and he knows what he is doing and that. He has a bit of anger. He has had that as a player all the way through, and as a manager as well.
“He still takes things seriously. When he is playing head tennis or is involved in games. He still wants to win.”
Ferry: “Does he join in?”
Murphy: “He joins in now and again. He has a bad knee, so he says. Not quite (doesn’t smash people). You can tell that if he wanted to, he could.”
The battle of the former Celtic players in the Championship
There are several former Celtic players currently trying to earn promotion from Scotland’s second-tier, with St Johnstone leading the charge.
The Perth side lost their first game of the season over the weekend, but they are still top of the league, as Mark Wilson’s Partick Thistle are sitting second in the table.
Ayr are fourth on 17 points, seven points behind the leaders and four points behind Wilson’s men.
And down in sixth place, you have the most experienced of the lot… Neil Lennon. On top of Lennon’s managerial success with Celtic, he also helped Hibernian earn promotion from the Championship.
But now, he is sitting sixth with Dunfermline, who will be another team hoping to finish in those play-off places.
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