Celtic pundit Paul John Dykes has criticised the club’s plan involving Scott Brown and how they might be looking to replace the midfielder.
Dykes was hosting the latest episode of the ‘A Celtic State of Mind’ podcast and the panel discussed multiple issues involving the Bhoys, including potential plans that Celtic might have made for replacing Brown in the long term. Dykes believes that a plan for replacing Brown should’ve been drawn up about three seasons ago.
Brown is now 35, but he is still a regular for the Bhoys in the Hoops midfield. He has made 12 Premiership appearances and has played in all three of the club’s games in the group stages of the UEFA Europa League (as per Transfermarkt). He is currently valued at £1.08m.
Have Celtic been late to replace Scott Brown?
Yes
No
Dykes believes that Celtic seem to have ‘no plan’ for replacing the veteran midfielder and he made his displeasure clear about this.
He said: “So you’re looking at Scott Brown at the moment, he’s a captain, he’s a leader – but there seems to be no plan. Because it is not as though he’s getting any less game time. He’s been brought off a couple of times, he didn’t start one game – St. Johnstone, was it? So I think when you’re looking at what the succession plan is, we should’ve been looking at that three seasons ago.
“We’re now looking at a situation where it is not working. So it is not a great time to try and plan it, it should have already been planned. Was the plan [Ismaila] Soro? Was the plan [David] Turnbull? And if so, why are they not getting any minutes?”
TIF Thoughts on Dykes’ comments regarding Celtic’s lack of plan for replacing Scott Brown…
Brown has picked up a rating of 6.86/10 in the Premiership this season (as per WhoScored) and as many as 14 players have picked up better ratings than him in the league, which suggests that he’s not had his best campaign so far.
Celtic did sign David Turnbull in the summer transfer window while Ismaila Soro arrived in January. Turnbull has made just one start in the league and Soro has made just two substitute appearances in the Premiership campaign, so they have clearly not been used too much by Neil Lennon.
Brown is now 35 and he will need replacing in the long term, but considering how much Soro and Turnbull have played and how underwhelming Brown has performed this year, it is understandable why Dykes is frustrated.