Celtic fans will be very familiar with the feeling of seeing some of their best players moving down south to the Premier League. We have seen that happen time after time over the years and you can take a long list of examples. Names like Virgil van Dijk, Kieran Tierney, Odsonne Edouard, Victor Wanyama, Kristoffer Ajer, are some of the names that come to mind immediately.
There is one player though, who had the chance to move down south during his playing career. But he decided to remain at Parkhead. It is none other than the legendary Scott Brown.
He was without doubt one of the best players in Scotland during his prime and a move to the Premier League would not have been difficult to engineer. But Broony decided to remain loyal to Celtic.
As reported by the Daily Record, speaking on their new Off The Record podcast, Brown said:
"“I had the chance to move to England with Tottenham and Newcastle but because of what the club had done for me in my time of need, I will always hold that in huge high regard.“That’s what means more to me than anything. They looked after me during a hard time so for me to jump ship was never in question.”"
Celtic hero rejected chance to join Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United
Of course, Brown’s decision to remain loyal to Celtic paid off spectacularly. He went on to become one of the most iconic captains in Scottish football history, as the Hoops won one trophy after another, and shattered plenty of records along the way as well.
Broony was front and centre in the majority of these achievements and is still remembered fondly to this day by the fans.
Of course, his Parkhead exit was less than what a player of his stature deserved. Brown left after the disastrous 2020/21 campaign, saying his goodbyes inside an empty Parkhead. It was not the hero’s farewell that he had earned.
Brown would go on to join Aberdeen in a player-coach role but it did not work out well. After that, he would hang up his boots and has moved into management, and finds himself at English League One side, Fleetwood Town.