MUCH has changed at Celtic Park in the 18 years since Jock Brown left his dual role as General Manager and bogeyman of the supporters. Yet quite a bit has stayed exactly the same.

In the seasons before, during and after the full-time lawyer and part-time commentator for Scotsport spent 18 interesting months at the club, millions were spent on players from the English top division.

That doesn’t happen anymore.

While the board these days face public protests despite winning the league and turning over a profit more often than not. But they are not popular, a feeling that may grow if, in the eyes of the general public, they bring the wrong bloke in to be the new manager.

This is more familiar territory to Brown who today is an intrigued spectator regarding what is happening at his former place of work which remains a big part of him.

“I have said before there were two defining periods in my life," said Brown. "The first was Cambridge, the second was Celtic for completely different reason. But I don’t regret one bit of it.

“I have talked to Fergus (McCann) since and said, ‘I wish you had let me do certain things.’ For instance, one of the things I do regret bitterly is that when the search for a manger was on the one rule that couldn’t be broken was that the manager had to be foreign.

"Fergus said, ‘No British managers to be considered.’ So there was absolutely no possibility of a British manager.”

Peter Lawwell, who at this moment in time, rightly or wrongly, could give Brown a run for his money in the unpopularity stakes needs to get his next big decision right. Ronny Deila was a mistake. Whoever comes next cannot be.

It is a situation which Brown knows all too well as he recalled trying to find someone to take the place of the popular and highly successful Jansen.

"That was the worst time for me at Celtic I have to say,” admitted Brown. “I was involved in the Venglos deal and that summer was horrendous in terms of relentless pressure, and it was so difficult to do the deal in the middle of a World Cup summer. Dr Jo knows perfectly well he wasn’t first choice.

“There were two genuine prospects. We tried a Norwegian manager (Egil Olsen) and another who wouldn’t entertain it until the 1998 World Cup was over. He wouldn’t even talk to you. We’re living in the goldfish bowl of Glasgow and people wanting news day-by-day and this individual was saying he wouldn’t speak until after the World Cup was over.”

But that was then and this is now. Celtic would not have been able to attract Jansen or maybe even Martin O’Neill if they were only able to shop for bargains, rather than established top professionals such as Craig Burley, Marc Rieper, Paul Lambert and some guy called Henrik Larsson.

“It was difficult then but the difference now is you are looking for top guys to come into Scottish football and it doesn’t look attractive enough,” said Brown. “If you think about when I was at Celtic, we were signing players from the English Premier League. That doesn’t happen today and I don’t think it will happen again in our lifetime.

"It used to be that Celtic was the destination. If you got to Celtic and did a decent job then you didn’t want to leave. Nowadays the people who join Celtic want to go to England, which is disappointing.

“I never thought I would see this day. It is the same about player recruitment which has changed dramatically. You are now looking at someone who is going to make Celtic a profit – incredible. It is a different ethos.

“It is very hard to be critical because of the way it has evolved. It’s not Celtic’s fault is has evolved this way. You could argue they could have done certain things another way but fundamentally the product here has not moved on the way it has elsewhere.”

Brown and McCann walked onto a stage at the club's AGM in Autumn 1998 to a chorus of jeers. Chances are that would happen if a similar meeting was to take place today with the current board.

“I was booed after we won two trophies, the League and League Cup, and for the first time in 15 years we made a profit – it was £7.5m,” said Brown with a smile. “We got heckled for making a profit which was designed to sign four players – Mark Viduka, Lubo Moravick, Johan Mjallby and Vidar Riseth – which I said at the time we would do.

“I would say, and this is from my own learning curve, is that one of the things you need to do better is communication. It applied to me then and it applies now. You have to communicate better with your support.”

David Moyes is a man he would like to see at the club “it would need to be on the basis that he has made so much money that it’s not important anymore and he just fancies doing the job,” and Michael O’Neill is another he fancies.

And for a man who was once so reviled, Brown did hit the nail on the head when he summed up where the club go from here.

“At Celtic it’s not enough to win a few games,” he said. “You have to win them with a bit of style.”

Jock Brown was speaking at the formal announcement that the Scottish Football Museum and Hampden Park have been confirmed as designated Learning Destinations for the Children’s University Scotland.

Children's University (CU) promotes high quality, exciting and innovative learning activities and experiences to children aged 5 to 14. The aim is to raise aspirations, boost achievement and encourage a love of learning