Philippe Clement’s amusing comments about Scott Brown ‘not liking Rangers too much’ were equally rebutted by the childhood Rangers fan-turned-Celtic-captain, who quipped that he ‘has a lot of love’ for Rangers.
In all honesty, it’s a funny one Scott Brown.
He was a childhood fan of Rangers, 100%. Many photos of him in the kit and that was his team.
But when he went into professional football, his path took him to Hibs as a youth, then the big pivotal moment when he and team mate Steven Whittaker’s times at Easter Road came to an end, and they were to get their big moves to Rangers.
The twist of course was Whittaker coming to Ibrox and Brown going to Celtic. We did try to get Brown, but it didn’t happen. Walter was an admirer.
Did Brown want Celtic? When footballers get a big move, they are a lot less interested in their own childhood allegiances than they now are in being a professional. They want their boyhood team, of course they do, but if the rival signs them, them’s the breaks.
And Brown threw himself into Celtic 100% and if we’re honest he did a good job of it. In a parallel universe, a sliding door moment, he got his Rangers move and it was Celtic he was winding up.
The day we believe he truly split as a boy/player from Rangers was that horrific comment some moron ‘fan’ made about his late sister – some things are unforgivable and that was.
Not really unlike that stupid director at Ibrox who made that foolish comment to Alex Ferguson about his catholic wife.
But in his post-playing career, having also had a bit of fun at Aberdeen, the calmer Brown has definitely returned as a human being, and he’s more than happy to engage in a bit of banter with this weekend’s opponent in Philippe Clement and Rangers.
Remember, this is the Brown who crossed the Old Firm divide to support Rangers’ Glen Kamara, and he also happily signed for charity a portrait of Ryan Kent punching him in the face.
He has a sense of humour and he’s not a monster.
He is, however, our opponent this weekend and he will give anything to get the win at Ibrox.
And of course, the big coup for his new charges Ayr United is they keep 50% of the gate receipts, so even a half-full Ibrox for this one is still a tonne of cash for a smaller club.
Clement is fundamentally right, Brown isn’t too fond of Rangers historically, but nowadays he likely doesn’t care all that much.
He said it himself, it’s all in the past now and his focus is Ayr United.
Our focus is of course on Rangers, and putting him out of his misery and keeping the treble on.
Crazier things have happened, right?