OPINION
It is a strange time to be Scott Brown at the moment. The man who has been a Celtic mainstay for over a decade now appears closer than ever to a Parkhead exit.
The Daily Record reported in October that there was interest in Australia in the 33-year-old, with talks over a Hoops contract extension delayed while Brown mulled his future over.
In the meantime he has been injured, returned to the side in midweek against Motherwell and been dropped for Saturday’s 5-1 thumping of Kilmarnock.
Now manager Brendan Rodgers has stated that he won’t be tempted to draft Brown back in against Red Bull Salzburg on Thursday based on sentiment.
“I have compassion for players who aren’t playing, especially those that have been amazing for me,” he told the Daily Record.
“But what I don’t have is sentimentality. It’s clear that the level and the fluency of the team is there right now. [Callum] McGregor, Ryan Christie, along with Tom Rogic, have been sensational in how they’ve played.
“Does it give me a selection headache ahead of Thursday? Not really. I will sit down with my staff and have a look at it. I know what Scott and Oliver Ntcham can do – but I know what the others can do too.”
That doesn’t sound particularly promoting for the Celtic skipper. Once thought of as the most crucial of Rodgers’s players, he may now be an afterthought following the emergence of McGregor as a deep lying central midfielder.
If Brown perceives that he’s not going to get as much first team football as he used to then he might consider taking up the offer of a switch to sunny Australia.
McGregor has been sensational in relief of Brown while the veteran was injured, and the captain’s Kilmarnock snub showed that the 25-year-old is now Rodgers’s first choice in the middle of the park.
Celtic, it seems, might have moved on from Brown. Without doubt they are not as reliant on him as they once were. The midfielder’s Parkhead career is on a knife-edge, and Saturday’s snub may have pushed him inexorably towards the exit door.