Former England international and Inverness manager Terry Butcher has claimed Celtic’s Scott Brown could “quite comfortably” play for one of the Premier League’s top clubs.
The 31-year-old midfield enforcer is currently preparing to line-up for the Three Lions after captaining the Hoops to a domestic treble in the last campaign.
He has been at Celtic for 10 years after signing from Hibernian in the summer of 2007 and has become one of Scotland’s greats.
Now, Butcher has heaped praise on the Hoops and Scotland linchpin ahead of their World Cup qualifying group match against England on Saturday evening.
“Scott could handle the English Premier League no problem at all. He’s a clever player. People think he goes about like a headless chicken, but he doesn’t. He’s very clever, he’s very strong, he’s the fulcrum, the point of attack in midfield and the point of defence as well. I wish he wasn’t playing,” told Butcher, as quoted by the BBC Sport website.
“I think he could. He’s an enforcer but he’s also a passer of the ball. If he was given a specific role he’s got the ability mentally and physically to cope with that. I still think he could do that now.
“You look at players in his position in the top four sides, the top six sides – and there is now looking like a top six or seven in England – he could handle that quite comfortably.
“You have got Mousa Dembele and Eric Dier that he’ll be up against from Spurs in midfield – that’s going to be a great battle. I don’t know who else is going to battle against Scott Brown in there – because he would take two players on, no problems. He would love it.”
Brown has played in 416 matches for Celtic across his career, scoring 37 goals while also assisting 55 and he has helped the club lift seven Premiership titles, three Scottish Cups and three Scottish League Cups.
He has also been capped by Scotland 52 times and while many Hoops fans will agree with Butcher that Brown can play in the Premier League they would much prefer he remain in Glasgow.
However, the midfield veteran is going into the final year of his contract at the club and this has left his future in some doubt.