Pundit Tam McManus has recently talked about the situation of Celtic midfielder Scott Brown.
McManus appeared on the latest episode of PLZ Soccer’s The Football Show and the panel discussed multiple issues involving Scottish football. One topic of discussion was Scott Brown and his involvement in the Celtic first-team right now. McManus revealed that he had a personal chat during lockdown with the midfielder, who said that he was finding it tough without training.
Brown has been at Celtic since the summer of 2007, when he joined the club from Hibernian. Over the years, the midfielder has made 589 appearances for the Bhoys. So while he is clearly an experienced campaigner, Brown is now 35 and isn’t getting any younger with every passing day.
Should Neil Lennon drop Scott Brown?
Yes
No
McManus believes that Brown indeed has been struggling physically this season and lockdown came at the wrong time for him.
He said: “There’s one thing that you can’t point at Scott Brown – I think he’s only guilty of getting old. He’s 35 years old now, I think the lockdown came at the wrong time for him at this stage of his career. When you’re 34, 35, you need to be in training every day, you need to be in training, working hard, just to keep your fitness up.
“Personally, I know Scott spoke to me during the lockdown, he was finding it very difficult not training, not training every day, not playing games. So the only thing he’s guilty of is getting older.”
TIF Thoughts on McManus’ comments regarding Brown…
Neil Lennon had recently criticised Brown following Celtic’s draw against Hibernian. Lennon had blamed the midfielder for the first goal that the Hoops had conceded in that game.
The 35-year-old has picked up a rating of 6.83 in the Premiership this season, racking up a disappointing rating of 6.28 in the Europa League. As many as 14 Celtic players have picked up better ratings than Brown in the league.
This clearly shows that he hasn’t had a good season so far and if he was finding it difficult during lockdown, it might be having an impact on his performances in the campaign.