CELTIC’S legendary captain Scott Brown is in the middle of an Aberdeen guessing game after the Pittodrie club sacked boss Stephen Glass yesterday.
The Dons also axed assistants Allan Russell and Henry Apaloo as chairman Dave Cormack reacted swiftly to the club’s 2-1 Scottish Cup exit at Motherwell 24 hours earlier.
It was Glass, a former Hibs team-mate of Brown, who persuaded the 36-year-old midfielder to quit Parkhead at the end of his contract in the summer to accept a player/coaching role at the north-east club.
However, the team boss, who saw his team go out of the Premier Sports League Cup to Raith Rovers earlier in the campaign and slump to ninth in the Premiership, has paid the price of failure after only 11 months in the role.
That leaves a question mark over Brown who is under contract as a player until the end of May 2023.
FRIEND OR FOE…Scott Brown tackles his former Celtic team-mate Callum McGregor in Aberdeen’s 3-2 loss at Pittodrie last week.
The one-time Scotland international skipper WILL be part of the team’s interim coaching team when they take on St Johnstone at Pittodrie tomorrow night.
Former Hoops star Barry Robson will take charge on a caretaker basis, as the club announced in a statement in the aftermath of Glass’ sudden departure.
It read: “Led by Barry Robson, who will step up from his role with the Under-18s, the coaching team will comprise of Neil Simpson, Scott Anderson and team captain, Scott Brown.”
It added: “The recruitment process for a new management team has now commenced. An update will be communicated in due course, but for now, everyone at the Club is fully focussed on the important match on Tuesday evening.”
Robson, who was signed for the Parkhead club by Gordon Strachan in January 2008 and is an ex-colleague of Brown, has been part of the club’s coaching staff since he quit playing in 2016.
Intriguingly, one name already in the frame for the Dons post is Neil Lennon who has been out of work for almost a year after exiting Parkhead two days after a dismal 1-0 loss to Ross county in Dingwall on February 21.
Jack Ross, dismissed by Hibs just a week before their Premier Sports League Cup Final loss to Celtic in December, has also been linked with the job.
FRIEND OR FOE…Callum McGregor and Scott Brown celebrate a Celtic victory.
After the loss at Fir Park, Brown, speaking to Red TV, admitted: “It is a huge disappointment for us. We fancied our chances coming here. We wanted to have a good Cup run and it’s very disappointing that it has been cut short so early.
“When we go 1-0 up we need to try and kill teams off. We put pressure on ourselves by not scoring the second goal and we have had a couple of chances. It is about that mentality throughout the whole team, wanting to keep a clean sheet, wanting to defend for our lives and we have not done that well enough.”
He added: “We need to make sure that we bounce back because we owe the fans a performance.
“It’s all about how high we can finish up the league now and to make sure we go on a run.”
The landscape has changed, though, with the sacking of his manager and friend Glass.
HOOPS TO THE FOUR AS JULLIEN RETURNS
