£4.4m and 6 Years Down the Line

Was it worth it? Throughout the last 6 years Scott Brown has been slated by his own fans, backed to the hilt from his own fans and genuinely been Celtic through and through.

From his first appearance against Kilmarnock to his latest one in the San Siro...


Broony has had his ups and downs, he made a bright start to his Celtic career. Clearing off the line away to Spartak Moscow to keep the scores level, winning a penalty (that big Jan missed!) in the home league, he quickly faded, he never hid once in this difficult first year as a Celtic player. Gordon Strachan fumbled around for the proper position to play him in, from attacking mid, to right mid to defensive mid, to plain ol' fashioned box to box midfielder.

Still though, he put in some classy performances in what was his debut season in the Champions League, particularly in a 1-0 victory against Benfica which doesn't often get mentioned due to Aiden McGeady being outstanding that night. The opposition resorted to trying to break his leg, which Binya received a straight red for.



The rest of the 2007-2008 season passed Brown by with relatively little highlights, many credit his injury and the introduction of Hartley and Robson for the reason we completed 3-in-a-row. We later found out that he was deeply troubled in this period, due to the tragic and long fought cancer battle from his little sister.

2008-2009 roled by and Gordon Strachan clearly had Broony's defensive attributes in mind as he played him further back of the midfield duo. Despite this Scott Brown went on to get the relatively good return of 7 goals, one of the best returns from a central midfielder that Gordon Strachan had seen, outside of the one and only Stillian Petrov. With his personal best coming at Parkhead in a 7-0 thumping of St Mirren where he bagged himself his very first brace in a Hoops top.

A man of the match performance in the Old Firm League Cup Final which Celtic went on to win 2-0 cemented him as a fan favourite and the year culminated in Scott Brown going up to pick up the SPFA Player's Player of the Year award.



Unfortunately this season was not all good news for Scott Brown, the ankle injury picked up this season and the close title race forced Broony into taking injections to play through the pain. A decision that would haunt him in the long run.

Following Gordon Strachan's resignation in at the end of the season, Scott Brown's former boss took over the reigns. Brown missed pre-season due to having surgery on the ankle injury that plagued him at the end of the season.

He made his comeback playing attacking midfielder away from home to Dynamo Moscow; where he made an immediate impact and helped Celtic score there 2nd of the night to set up a play off tie against Arsenal.

The rest of this year was stop start for Brown; he tried again to rid himself of ankle injury problems by undergoing a 2nd surgery in Rotterdam. It was at the end of his injury lay off that he made his comeback as captain of Celtic; with Club Captain Stephen McManus sold to Middlesbrough in the January transfer window.

With the wheels coming off of Celtic's season due to Tony Mowbray's mismanagement; it ended in Mowbray's dismissal with a terrible 4-0 defeat and a bafflling decision to play Brown left back for a large part of the second half.

Neil Lennon took over - Brown featured in all 8 league games as Celtic finished up the season strongly (with a small hitch called Ross County!)

This was to enter the best period of Scott Brown's Celtic career so far; still wearing the captains armband and finding a renewed energy on the right wing Brown was coming into his own in a Celtic jersey. He was bossing games and was providing superb balance to the team... he cemented his place in the eyes of the Celtic support with an iconic goal and even more iconic celebration to the dying Rangers as a 10 men Celtic leveled 2-2 in what was a commanding performance.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLStT0WbQXQ"]Celtic 2 Rangers 2 - scot brown v rangers 6th feb 2011.wmv - YouTube[/ame]



Despite losing the league by a single point, Scott Brown's performances were a major part that season on making Neil Lennon the first manager to stop Smith's dominance of Old Firm matches; with Rangers only recording 2 victories in 7 that season. However, playing through injuries was starting to take it's toll on Brown's body.

He started the 2011-2012 season with utterly rejecting Newcastle's intention to bring him to the much vaunted Premier League. Signing a new deal in August Brown went on to lift his very first trophy as captain of the club. His ankle injury flared back up in the beginning of the season and he was rushed back early for the first match of the season. Brown's involvement in both goals seen Celtic go into the half time break 2-1 up at Ibrox. Eventually losing the game 4-2; after Brown was forced off the pitch through a recurrence of his ankle injury.

After the match Neil Lennon announced that he would need to go see a specialist and would be out for several months; this coincided with Celtic's worst form of the season; seeing us being 15 points behind Rangers at one point during the season. He made his return in November, in a 1-0 defeat against Atletico Madrid.

However, Brown's return re-invigorated a lucklustre Celtic side and went on a winning run to see Celtic topple Rangers at the top of the league in a 1-0 New Year Derby, with Joe Ledley scoring the winner.

Brown's comeback, and the most prolific point of his Celtic career seeing him score 4 in 4 had Celtic picking up steam and eventually running away with the title. That Brown gladly lifted at the end of the season.



And that brings us up to last year, the latest full season that Scott Brown played in the Hoops and what a season it was! Brown, now with what Neil Lennon described as a debilitating hip injury played through the wars for his club, putting his body on the line time and time again. Many were fearful that he would need to retire early if he kept it up but performances such as the opening Champions League game against Benfica made him just to good to miss out on. He captained the side into the Last 16 of the Champions League for the 3rd time in Celtic's history.



This season Brown has started on a high; the injuries of last season seem behind him as the games come thick and fast for the captain of both his country and his club.

He has stood on the field with giants of the game at the start of this season and hasn't looked out of place; once again Scott Brown has been showing the reason he is so valuable to Celtic.

Throughout the years the £4.4m pricetag has been brought up, his status as the highest earner at the club has been used to bash him; he hasn't always got the praise he deserves. He has been both utterly derided and hailed up to the high heavens. 6 years into his Celtic career I wouldn't have anyone else but Scott Brown. Where do you stand? Is it well spent or are you still a disbeliever?

 

Good post.

Get a poll up so I can vote 'yes'.

\_0_/

 

Quick off the mark :icon_mrgreen:

 

I love Broony.

It's remarkable how in the space of six years, he has transformed from the wee ned in midfield for Hibs to the captain of a club like Celtic, leading us both domestically and in Europe.

One of the first names on the team sheet for me, along with Sammy and Ledley.

 

Super post

In short : Yes.

A long winded answer : Defos.

 

Good post man.

I vote yes.

 

You trolling *, pod.

 

Christ almighty, that was a fine post Dev!

I was a huge critic of his early one, but a few year back I decided to give him my undivided support.

Now, he is one of my favourite players, the captain of Celtic and an integral part of the first team as well as the club in it's whole.

Was £4.4m worth it? Abso-*-lutely!

 

Big yes. Love him. \0/


Superb post

 

:smiley-laughing002:

 

cheers mate, thought I hadn't done one in a while!

He had a lot of critics in his early days, his first season not being the best, his player of the year season we lost the league and then the Mowbray debacle happened. I always thought this overshadowed how good he actually was for us, he had to mature a lot when he came in, Celtic aren't used to spending £4.4m on a player and waiting on him maturing.

The last few years everything has came together for him; some of the players he's went toe to toe with have been some of the greatest in history and he hasn't looked out of place. I made a big deal out of fans saying "Champions League Class Players" at the start of the season.

Well, Broony is most definitely one of them.

 

To be perfect honest....I'm still torn.

 

Yes. Lennon has got the best out of him.

 

Best not-* super-long post on TC ever.

 

Yes for me, a pivotal part of the team.

 

When you factor in that he has also cost us approx £8m in wages over this time the answer is a very obvious no. His consistency is just not good enough and his injuries dont help either.

When you put it into the perspective that he is and has been one of our top earners in his time here you get a clearer picture imo.

Lets just hope that the form he has been showing this season and the tail end of last continues.

The one thing that he does do however is seem to attract some nonsensical reviews at both ends of the spectrum. If he has a good game some of the fanboy reactions are truly cringeworthy and its the exact same when he plays *.

He isn't our best CM even now and its clear that Lenny didn't think so in all his time here as he was playing on the right quite often. This, tbf to Brown, did not help with consistency as he is clearly not a RM. I just hope that he keeps fit, keeps central and keeps his form up.

 

Yeah, I think you and I were speaking about that earlier in one of the threads on last night's game about the type of player he has come up against and stood toe to toe with them in terms of quality.

If Brown's shooting were better, I swear he'd be the complete midfielder.

 

??

 

The only pure right footed player that is better hitting them with his left