Bobby Brown enjoyed several aspects of life at Rangers

Graeme Macpherson

Football Writer

Friday 5 October 2012

AT 89 years old, Bobby Brown looks a picture of health.

Bobby Brown managed Scotland to victory over England at Wembley in 1967

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Graeme Macpherson

The manager of Scotland when world champions England were beaten in 1967 was at Hampden yesterday to help make the draw for the quarter-finals of the Scottish Communities League Cup, before offering a sharp and shrewd analysis of Scottish football in the modern era.

The recent demise of Rangers, who he represented for a dozen years as a goalkeeper of some repute, is a particular sore point. Brown still speaks fondly about his time at Ibrox – and it was hard not to acknowledge the irony when he revealed his signing-on fee in 1946 was "spread over a number of years for tax purposes" – and hopes to live long enough to see Rangers return to the top division, where he feels they belong."When I think back on my career at Rangers, I had 12 wonderful years there and there's no doubt in my mind, not the slightest doubt, that Rangers Football Club set me up for life," he said. "I've nothing but praise for the Rangers I knew and I can't get my head around what's happened. "Now they're in the third division I've no doubt they'll win that but they've still got to come to terms with that. My hope is I'll still be on the planet when they get back to where they belong, the upper echelons of our games, not only in Scotland but also Europe. I can say already they are being sorely missed in the SPL."Celtic have done a wonderful service for Scottish football this week [beating Spartak Moscow in the Champions League], make no mistake about that, but a few weeks ago St Johnstone almost called their game off because of a virus, so they put out a second team and still beat Celtic. So that tells you they need Rangers there because the others are so inconsistent; Motherwell and Dundee United, who were supposed to be up there. There's nobody there to challenge Celtic now, so the SPL definitely needs Rangers. I've no doubt they'll progress through the divisions and ultimately get their goal."Brown declares himself a fan of Rangers' new owner. "I've very happy with Charles Green," he added. "I don't know him, but I think he's sincere in what he's trying to do. I have the highest regard for Ally McCoist and Sandy Jardine, two pillars, two real Rangers people who are trying to turn the club around."Hopefully they will come to terms with playing in the third division because when they play away they've still got something to learn in that department. When they played Motherwell at Ibrox they showed a tremendous lot of promise to the young players."Ahead of the key World Cup qualifying double-header against Wales and Belgium, Brown was pleased to see the two Fletchers, Steven and Darren, both return to the Scotland fold. "I'd say in the first two games being at home [against Serbia and then Macedonia] everyone expected them to win or get four points out of six," he said."The fact they didn't, they were severely criticised and I feel the addition now of the two Fletchers [will make a difference]. I say that because they're household names, and to me the international team, as opposed to the ones I had to pick, have always lacked players with household names."There are a number of players who are new to Scotland and are probably just making their way with their own clubs, therefore it's been very difficult for the manager. Now I'm very confident the fact the players have the pressure off them, and are playing away from home in the next two games. The addition of two players with household names will reflect in their favour and I would confidently predict we'll have two good results."

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Bobby Brown enjoyed several aspects of life at Rangers

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