Scott Brown speaks out, but Celtic need to keep quiet

By Euan Davidson

January 12, 2021

Controlling the narrative does not mean constantly attempting to defend the indefensible.

You’d have thought anyone with a crumb of PR experience would know this. Not Celtic Football Club. Day after day, the club is attempting to placate the support with fan favourites while the support is livid. Last night, it was David Turnbull.

The next to face the public firing line? Our legendary captain, Scott Brown.

Broony was tasked, for whatever reason, with defending the Dubai debacle. God knows he tried his best, but the club repeatedly feeding our players to the lions is getting awfully tiring.

In quotes attributed to the Glasgow Times, Celtic’s captain said:

“Everyone is going to question everything – that’s the modern-day era.

“Everyone has a say in everything we do these days.

“We got the okay from the government and we made sure we followed the guidelines from there.”

Celtic captain Scott Brown / (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)

Scott Brown, Celtic captain, is being given an impossible job

Brown continued:

“We went out and worked hard on training – that’s what the whole thing was for us.

“People don’t see our training daily or see how hard we worked.

“Sometimes you’re allowed to sit on the sun-beds and have some down-time as well.”

Ok, then. I’m not going to hammer Scott Brown here, he’s an ambassador of the club, and of course he has to agree with Celtic’s stance on what’s been going on.

We probably won’t hear an honest assessment of the debacle for a few years, if ever, from a member of the squad. That’s not a criticism, by the way. They have to be on-message, because it’s a part of their job. Everyone should understand this.

So any and all ire is once again directed at the club, here. The idea of “well, everyone’s going to have their say” smacks of Peter Lawwell to me. To simply dismiss legitimate criticism as social media chatter is beyond distasteful – it’s pretty much the only way Celtic supporters can currently interact with the club!

Forcing the players and coaching staff to defend the club relentlessly will only serve to alienate supporters further. We’re not asking for a Riccarton Three (Daily Record) situation.

Scott Brown, a bonafide Celtic legend, is right to some degree. Down-time is absolutely a good thing. On the day of a Derby defeat, abroad, while the supporters are stuck at home, though?

At best, the comments come across as rather callous. Our players have had a hell of a time of it, but can’t their down-time be at home, like the rest of us? There’s far, far less risk that way, from any angle.

Come on. The messaging from the board has to be so much better than this. Winning the fans back doesn’t mean sacrificing the club’s biggest icon from the last decade to an angry press and supporter base.