The international calendar is well underway now as Scotland looks to finalise their squad for Euro 2024 with, hopefully, a healthy quota of Celtic players in it.
As Steve Clarke called four players into his provisional squad the Celtic supporters will be hoping that Greg Taylor, James Forrest and Anthony Ralston do enough to make the final cut.
Callum McGregor, barring injury, is guaranteed his place but it would make the tournament more interesting for the Hoops fans if all four are selected in the Scotland squad.
Scotland has had a number of Celtic players who have had an influence on the team over the decades and, listening to Gordon Strachan, it seems that one in particular really impressed him during his tenure as the Dark Blues manager.
Celtic legend labelled a ‘great captain’ by Strachan
As the Celtic manager, Strachan didn’t have Brown as the captain but when he was the manager of Scotland, the Celtic legend was given the armband and it’s clear that Brown was an inspiration to his international teammates.
Strachan said [Football’s Greatest], “I worked with Scott Brown. I signed him at Celtic. He wasn’t captain then because I had a good captain in Stephen McManus.
“He does everything by example. Even watch Kieran Tierney training wearing a t-shirt in the winter.
“That’s come from Scott Brown. That was him saying, ‘Nothing bothers me.’
“So I make Scott the captain of Scotland. For instance, you know how players can mould a squad, drive a squad and I think we were playing England.
“And some of the players who were brought into the squad hadn’t played for maybe four weeks and Scott Brown had played in a cup final the previous week for Celtic.
“So we had to work at the fitness of the players. So we agreed with the fitness coaches that the guys at four weeks [without playing] will have to work more and do more.
“So the first training session and this was probably eight days after Celtic played in the cup final.
“And the first group was probably eight players who were going to do a really hard session and then Scott Brown said, ‘What are you doing?’
“I said, ‘I’m doing this, you’ve done it before at Celtic and it’s hard running. You have a day off.’
“He said, ‘No, I’m the captain.’ So as he walks across and Snodgrass says, ‘What’s he doing?’
“I said, ‘He’s joining in. I don’t know why.’ So he’s then joined in. Then Christophe Berra comes across and he joins in.
“The time we are about to start, the whole squad joined in on the full session.
“So that’s the power of a great captain. And that’s the power of a great man and that’s what he is.
“Not the most talented but he’s a great man, a great captain and a great driver who got better and better as he got older.
“So that’s what a captain can do, he can set that set that tone for you.”
Brown was capped 55 times for his country over a glittering football career spanning over 20 years. Making his debut as a second-half substitute in a 1-1 friendly with the USA in 2005, the former Celtic captain retired in 2016 after an 11-year Scotland career.
However, he came out of retirement in October of the same year to help Scotland’s 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign but after the team failed to qualify once again, Brown announced his second and final retirement in February 2018.
The only regret that Brown is likely to have is that he never got to go to a major tournament with Scotland and lead the team out as captain.
I, along with thousands of other Celtic fans, would have loved to have seen that. It’s no more than the legend deserved.