Thread: Scott Brown shock...

Exclusive: Scott Brown set for shock Celtic exit after being told he has no future at club

Jan 20 2010 Keith Jackson

Tony Mowbray has stunned star man Scott Brown by telling him he has no future at Celtic.

Record Sport understands the Scotland midfielder was given the bombshell news during a showdown meeting with Mowbray before Christmas - and that the manager made it clear he hoped to sell him during the January transfer window.

Brown is believed to be devastated by Mowbray's decision to ditch him - and by the fact his one-time mentor at Hibs, a man he had huge respect for, chose to jettison him during his long slog back to fitness after botched ankle surgery last summer.

Brown, signed from Easter Road by previous Celtic boss Gordon Strachan for £4.5million, had been a key player fo rMowbray in the manager's first few months even though he was playing in serious discomfort.

He eventually broke down in October and was flown to Amsterdam to go under the knife a second time in a desperate bid to beat the injury and help his boss secure the SPL title during his first season in charge.

He is now back at the club's Lennoxtown HQ working his way towards full fitness but heartbroken Brown, who is just days away from rejoining full training, knows Mowbray would rather sell him immediately than play him when he is ready to return to action.

Brown has been a long-term signing target for Spurs manager Harry Redknapp and was also attracting serious interest from Birmingham gaffer Alex McLeish before his most recent op.

But although he could land a bumper wage deal in the Premiership, Brown has said consistently he is content at Celtic and has no desire to leave Glasgow's East End.

Last night, when contacted by Record Sport, the player said: "Yes, there was a conversation between myself and the manager but I am not prepared to go into details.

"I believe these things should remain private. Maybe you should ask him what was said. I have nothing more to add."

But privately Brown has been rocked by his manager's stance and his team-mates are also understood to have been appalled by the manner in which Mowbray has treated one of the most popular and highly-rated players at the Parkhead club.

And this shock move has triggered a chain of events that has led to further serious unrest among Mowbray's first-team squad.

Agroup of senior players spoke up against the manager earlier in the season after he repeatedly attacked them in public following a string of poor results and admitted he would like to bring in as many as 10 new players in the transfer window.

Mowbray agreed to curb his criticism of his team but has shown a ruthless streak by selling four players - Gary Caldwell, Barry Robson, Willo Flood and Chris Killen - in the first two weeks of the January sales.

Without them Mowbray's team stumbled to a 1-1 draw at home to bottom club Falkirk on Saturday, a result that leaves Celtic trailing SPL leaders R*ngers by nine points.

Now Brown fears he could be the next one out, against his will.

And top scorer Scott McDonald is another key man fretting on his immediate future after apparently failing to impress Mowbray enough to nail down a place in the manager's shot-shy attack.

Never been his biggest fan but I don’t see the sense in selling him now…

We are going to leave ourselves very short in the MF.

This doesn’t look good for the dressing room either.

Yep, just seen this myself, we are leaving ourselves very light in the middle of the park.

Apart from N'Guemo we have no real dig in there apart from Brown. This makes no sense.

I really don't like the way Mowbray goes about his business. He's alienating players and causing unrest in the dressing room imo.

There you have it then dressing rooms fucked.


If he does go he,ll probably go at the end of the window therefor the board can pocket the cash and say they never had anytime to reinvest it in the squad ,the same goes if Skippy gets sold.

I agree Bhoys, this is fucked up.

The board are shafting us yet again and we have a manager who hasn’t a clue how to handle himself at a big club.

if we have someone lined up then why not, he's shit.

I'm shocked that Brown and Skippy "failed to impress" mowbray, if this is how he goes about his buisness then no wonder the players are stressed/distracted. He doesnt have a clue

Originally Posted by clagan

if we have someone lined up then why not, he's shit.

Brown?? I think hes a cracking player, great passion.

Everyone cried for a clearout of the squad, what has changed?

wouldnt get in the team now with mcgeady n'guemo crosas Ki Zhi McGinn Maloney ahead of him. Sell and move on

Originally Posted by angiebowie

Brown?? I think hes a cracking player, great passion.

i've got great passion too, maybe they should sign me, WOOF!

no he's a diddy, cant pass (long or short), cant score, all he's got is a great engine. why dont we just sign moses kiptunui?

Originally Posted by The Irish Jinky

Everyone cried for a clearout of the squad, what has changed?

wouldnt get in the team now with mcgeady n'guemo crosas Ki Zhi McGinn Maloney ahead of him. Sell and move on

The thing is Jinky, of all the players you mentioned, there is only one ball winner in there.

Now, if we were to get a spoiler in, a player to do the dirty work, then fair enough.

But I just don't trust the board to do that tbh.

Originally Posted by clagan

i've got great passion too, maybe they should sign me, WOOF!

no he's a diddy, cant pass (long or short), cant score, all he's got is a great engine. why dont we just sign moses kiptunui?
http://www.sportvox.fr/IMG/Moses_kip...0m_steeple.jpg

He looks like he would break easy

Originally Posted by The Irish Jinky

Everyone cried for a clearout of the squad, what has changed?

wouldnt get in the team now with mcgeady n'guemo crosas Ki Zhi McGinn Maloney ahead of him. Sell and move on

Mate, I don’t like Skippy either but as I said on another thread I would hate to lose him this Jan.

The way Mowbray is going about his business doesn’t fill me with great confidence either.

I always though he was gonna take over Robson's role as someone who is willing to get stuck in. Seems not.

tbh I've never been a big fan of him either since he joined Celtic, seams to run about like a donkey and not know what to do with the ball.

I just wonder who's gonna buy him after his injuries?

Originally Posted by angiebowie

He looks like he would break easy

probably score more goals than brooooon though.

I am really pissed off about this decision.

I like Broony and think he has a lot to offer. I know there are some Celtic fans who disagree but I think he's one of our best players. At a time when our team totally lacks leadership and doesn't seem to have any guts or fight, selling a player like Broony is criminal. We seem to be emptying out all the players who have a bit of heart and leadership about them, why!??? I don't want to see 11 Zheng Zhi's out on the park ie. guys who don't seem to have any passion or steel about them. In Scotland you can't just send 11 'footballers' onto the park and be successful. There has to be some semblence of aggression in your team. All of this might sound dreadfully old-fashioned but in Scottish Football it is true. Sometimes you just have to roll up your sleeves, get stuck in and battle your way to a victory. By emptying out every player who has a bit of steel and dig in their game Tony Mowbray is making us vulnerable to dropping points at places like Tynecastle and Ibrox imo. Say what you like about Broony but if a game became towsy in the midfield nobody ever took the piss out of him and he always fought his corner well and stood up to be counted.

Look how passive our team is becoming now:

Hinkel - The guy doesn't know what a slide tackle is
Loovens - Tackles like a fairy
Zheng Zhi - Too passive
Crosas - Lightweight and not aggressive at all
McGeady - He's a wee guy and a winger so he's not going to tackle much
McGinn - Same as McGeady
Samaras - Big poof when it comes to the physical side of the game

Our team is becoming so weak in this area. The only player we'll have left who will tackle somebody is N'Guemo. I'm not saying that I want us to have a team full of Lee McCulloch's and to go around kicking teams into submission but surely there must be some steel in the team to mix with the silk? Paul McStay used to thrive because he had people like Roy Aitken or Peter Grant playing alongside him to do the dirty stuff. There is nobody in the Celtic team going to do the dirty stuff and be a driving force if Scott Brown is sold.

This is a mistake. A mistake that might not fully raise it's head till our midfield is being trampled over and bullied in Govan in a few weeks time but a mistake nonetheless. I've been one of Tony Mowbray's strongest backers up to this point but this decision I am not happy with at all.

Originally Posted by CelticInMySoul

I am really pissed off about this decision.

I like Broony and think he has a lot to offer. I know there are some Celtic fans who disagree but I think he's one of our best players. At a time when our team totally lacks leadership and doesn't seem to have any guts or fight, selling a player like Broony is criminal. We seem to be emptying out all the players who have a bit of heart and leadership about them, why!??? I don't want to see 11 Zheng Zhi's out on the park ie. guys who don't seem to have any passion or steel about them. In Scotland you can't just send 11 'footballers' onto the park and be successful. There has to be some semblence of aggression in your team. All of this might sound dreadfully old-fashioned but in Scottish Football it is true. Sometimes you just have to roll up your sleeves, get stuck in and battle your way to a victory. By emptying out every player who has a bit of steel and dig in their game Tony Mowbray is making us vulnerable to dropping points at places like Tynecastle and Ibrox imo. Say what you like about Broony but if a game became towsy in the midfield nobody ever took the piss out of him and he always fought his corner well and stood up to be counted.

Look how passive our team is becoming now:

Hinkel - The guy doesn't know what a slide tackle is
Loovens - Tackles like a fairy
Zheng Zhi - Too passive
Crosas - Lightweight and not aggressive at all
McGeady - He's a wee guy and a winger so he's not going to tackle much
McGinn - Same as McGeady
Samaras - Big poof when it comes to the physical side of the game

Our team is becoming so weak in this area. The only player we have left who will tackle somebody now is N'Guemo. I'm not saying that I want us to have a team full of Lee McCulloch's and to go around kicking teams into submission but surely there must be some steel in the team to mix with the silk? Paul McStay used to thrive because he had people like Roy Aitken or Peter Grant playing alongside him to do the dirty stuff. There is nobody in the Celtic team going to do the dirty stuff and be a driving force if Scott Brown is sold.

This is a mistake. A mistake that might not fully raise it's head till our midfield is being trampled over and bullied in Govan in a few weeks time but a mistake nonetheless. I've been one of Tony Mowbray's strongest backers up to this point but this decision I am not happy with at all.

Spot on.

To get rid of Brown AND Robson this window would leave us very lightweight.

If true then he's just another one in the clique?

Earlier in the season rumours surfaced of certain players having their noses pushed out of joint, IMO rightly so. These players have over inflated egos and the talk on here and around the forums at the time was we were better off shot of such players.

I think Brown, McDonald maybe even Mick? I'm not sure are the only ones left of that Clique. I had no problem with getting these bad attitudes out of the cub, then and I still have no problem doing so now. Of course clubs have to want them first and second we must have players to replace them with, that goes without saying.

Again if this story is true and Mogga was "honest" enough to tell Scott Brown to his face, that he was planning on letting him go. Then I see no problem with that at all. What I do see as a problem, is it looks like Brown has gone whining to the press.

His efforts should be on trying to show the manager his worth not crying to the press like a baby. If their in no way back for him at Celtic. Then he's had since November to get his agent on the job of finding a new club for him.

Perhaps he's struggling to find a club that first wants him or perhaps even one who is not willing to pay a substantial transfer fee for his services. This stinks of Brown trying to get his price down, so he can manipulate a move.

Mogga for me in this is not at fault, it's the player for opening his mouth who we should be annoyed at. The boy needs to do some growing up. If he had done some of that over the past few seasons, then he might have had a future with Celtic.

disagree about zhi ^ mate, he wasn afraid to put the boot in and agree we need a leader on the pitch someone to lead by example and get the players going, that man was barry robson

I despair, I really do....

Why dont we just hand the title over now....FFS!!!!! Mowbray!!!...this is fucked up!

Originally Posted by Gercelt

I despair, I really do....

Why dont we just hand the title over now....FFS!!!!! Mowbray!!!...this is fucked up!

I never wanted him and I make no apologies for it.

He’s ridiculously out of his depth. Even more so than Strachan I now believe.

His record is worse than Barnes AND LeGuen.

The criteria for the ‘Celtic manager’ position has fallen so drastically.

The PLC has been shafting us for years, it’s time we made our feelings clear, the board can GTF and they can take that clown Mowbray with them.