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While most of us lick our lips at the prospect of a name fight coming to an end, Scott Brown believes it’s over.
And, let’s face it, the man who led Celtic to nine consecutive Premiership crowns has some experience in that matter. His former club entered the cold room to close with an eight-point lead after four rebounding wins, adding one win. in the Old Firm’s festive showdown.
And, while Rangers will go into the second half of the season with two games in hand, it was that derby result that convinced Brown that this season’s war for national supremacy is now over. “I see it the same way everyone else does. “” says Brown candidly when asked how the season will play out, even if the vast majority of the audience remains much less sure.
“I think Celtic will win the league. Celtic overall have the better team, especially the front three – they look more like they’re going to score than Rangers do. They’ve got more legs throughout the whole park and they’ve probably got better midfielders and defenders.”
So there’s not much room for doubt. But then Brown insists he also knew Brendan Rodgers would come out more sensible last month, when the Celtic manager faced Philippe Clement for the first time after a December wobble that included back-to-back defeats to Kilmarnock and Hearts.
He nodded: “I knew they were going to get the result. When Celtic lose a few games, they recover well and Brendan is calm. He will have put everyone under pressure and especially at home for an attack as vital as this.
And now it’s not easy for Rodgers for the men in the Celtic auditorium to step up their efforts and do their part in the remaining weeks of the transfer window. If he uttered the word “quality” only once, it was because he should have discussed it. a dozen times before the January sales. But, 11 days later, he’s still waiting for that quality to arrive.
Brown said: “Everyone wants to bring in more quality, that is part and parcel of the transfer market. It’s only open twice a year so everyone on the board will try to push it as far as they can.
“Brendan will try to get as much quality as he possibly can. They have a big squad so it happens that people will go, people will come in. It just depends on what areas the manager wants.”
But while Rodgers awaits his new arrivals, Brown believes Celtic will assert their superiority in the second half of the season no matter who comes and goes. He said: “Especially now they don’t have European football anymore, so the league will be their main focus. “It will be week after week for them, weeks at most.
“The Celtics are used to this, too. This will allow them to rest a little longer. This will allow the coach to decide the shape, design, and how they will press.
“And, especially with the arrival of new bodies, it will be vital for Brendan because he will need them to perceive how he needs them to play, but also what Celtic’s criteria are and what he expects from them.
“The Rangers will have more games and it can take place one way or another, to be honest. When I was a gamer, I enjoyed gambling because that’s the right thing to do. You have to play Saturday, Wednesday and Saturday.
“But rarely, if you lose in one of those games and then lose the next one, you can find yourself in a miserable situation and it can be difficult to get out of it. Celtic will have a better chance of recovering and staying in shape. “
And then all roads will lead to Ibrox in early April, when the bell rings for Rodgers vs. Clement in the second round. Brown hopes that by then some progress has been made in the small, protracted standoff between the clubs that led to a lockout of visiting fans.
In typically spiky fashion, he said: “It is sad that there are no away fans for either side. But if somebody starts it, we finish it – that’s the usual thing for us. But hopefully we can get back to having away fans at the games.
“It would be great because there’s nothing better than going home and seeing 5,000 or 6,000 fans supporting you rather than just seeing 50,000 Rangers fans. It’s the biggest game in Scotland and probably in Britain. So you should visit it to promote it. make it as productive as possible.
“In my time, the only games we played without away fans were Covid, when no one was allowed into the stadium. It was like playing with your friends in the park. There was no one to cheer you on. You were celebrating a goal, I ran to the corner flag, then I realized that there was no one there and that you were slowly making your way back to the halfway line.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s good if you go away from home, you win and then see that stadium empty. We did that a lot with Celtic and that’s why everything changed.
“The fact is that we ended up with only 700 fans in the domain and they were even louder than the fans in the house. Obviously, it probably would have worked for them that Covid season when Stevie Gerrard was around. After that, we recovered.
“But you fans. There are hobbies on both sides and those little banter between the two fan teams.
Scott Brown speaking at a Scottish Gas media event. Scottish Gas is the proud spouse of the Scottish Cup.