SCOTT BROWN admitted the arrival of Brendan Rodgers at Celtic has become one of the most important landmarks of his entire career as he celebrated leading his club to the 100th trophy in their long history.
The captain was nothing short of outstanding in the 3-0 Betfred League Cup Final win over Aberdeen. He bossed the midfield without breaking into much of a sweat, in a performance which has become typical of him this season.
No player exemplifies the Rodgers affect better than Brown who at 31-years-old, in football terms this is ancient given what he’s put his body through, is playing the best stuff of his life. It is a quite stunning turnaround from last season when he seemed close to done.
“The manager coming to Celtic is one of the best things that has happened in my career, without a doubt – definitely,” said a beaming Brown. “He has just brought confidence, game awareness, everyone knowing where they should be for 90 minutes, nobody just standing next to an opponent, you are pulling off at angles.
“Every time I’ve got the ball, it’s so easy because I’ve got so many options in front of me, so many players in space.
“That showed when Aberdeen came back at us. We knew what they were going to do, they have a lot of big, physical players. But we’ve got great defenders and midfielders who can win those battles. They will get into the box and try to beat you physically. So to keep a clean sheet is pleasing, because we still tried to get the ball down and play our way out of pressure.”
Brown will go down in history as the Celtic captain who lifted cup number 100 and there is more to come from this team. His team are going to win the league and a Treble, achieved only three times before, is beginning to look odds-on.
“We’re doing well in the league but we’ve not started the Scottish Cup yet,” said Brown. “We’ll see how it goes. But it would be lovely.
“Dominating every competition is our plan. We want to win everything. I’ve always wanted that – but now I actually believe we can win every single game we play. It would be lovely to win a Treble but we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves.
“It’s fantastic to be captain of this club right now, to be leading these lads, to be playing under a great manager as well, and to be enjoying my football, that is the main thing. We knew this would be the club’s 100th trophy. The gaffer made that clear to us all and so we went out there knowing we wanted it.”
Celtic can in fact afford to get ahead of themselves. Aberdeen are the second best team in the county and couldn’t lay a finger on a side who can call themselves champions-elect before Christmas.
One of the many reasons for this is how Rodgers has managed to get the best out of players such as James Forrest who was on his way out a few months ago with few if any supporters particularly sad to see him go.
The winger scored his side’s second and won a penalty which led to the third. He has probably never played better in a green and white shirt.
“Football changes really quickly and I never wanted to leave this club,” said Forrest.” I thought I’d wait my time and you just keep working hard. It was just the last couple of months of last season where I hadn’t played games, but that happens in football and it was positive from day one of this season.
“Once I got the contract sorted, that was it. Now I just want to keep winning more trophies for this tremendous football club.
“The manager phoned me in the off-season and asked me what my plans were. I said I wanted to stay at Celtic. I never said anything else. He told me to just come back in for pre-season and that everybody would be working hard. Pre-season was tough but winning trophies was our aim.”
And winning trophies has become even more enjoyable for Craig Gordon, who had one save to make all day when he did well to get both hands to an Andrew Considine header at 1-0.
The goalkeeper thought he’d lost his place forever when Dorus de Vries was signed and so who could blame him for wearing a smile as wide as the Hampden pitch?
“You learn to enjoy them more as you get older,” said Gordon. “When I won the Scottish Cup with Hearts in 2006 it was very special but you don’t take that on board as much at that age.
“I was in my early 20s and I thought that would come along more often. Instead, I had a massive wait for the next chance to win a cup final. The more experienced you become, the more you appreciate successes like this one.
“A winner’s medal and a clean sheet was everything we wanted from today. We went through the entire campaign without losing a goal when we won the League Cup two seasons ago and now we’ve repeated the feat.
“It’s very good to win any game and have a clean sheet but to do it in a cup final is very special. In truth, it was all too easy for Celtic.
In truth, it was all too easy for them.
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