SCOTT BROWN could have been preparing for a return to the Premiership next season.
Instead, the Celtic legend is out of the game after leaving Ayr United last month following nine games without a win.
Last year, Brown, the iconic Hoops captain who led the team to 22 honours during his glittering 14-year playing career at Parkhead, had been linked with St Johnstone who have just sealed their top-flight comeback after the previous term’s relegation.
The Perth club made certain with a 2-0 win over Neil Lennon’s Dunfermline at East End Park last night.
However, the 40-year-old ex-Scotland international skipper resisted any thoughts of quitting because of loyalty towards the Somerset Park club.
THUMB’S UP…Scott Brown reacts to the fans as he provides BBC match analysis as his ex-Celtic boss Neil Lennon leads Dunfermline to a penalty-kick shoot-out success over Falkirk at Hampden on Saturday.
He and long-time friend and assistant Steven Whittaker signed a new deal with the Ayrshire outfit, but they couldn’t prevent the injury-ravaged squad from following out of play-off contention this time around.
Brown said: “It’s football, you can be flying high and, look, we had opportunities to go elsewhere and you stay and try to be loyal at the time.
“Maybe we should have jumped ship at that point.
“We could have gone to the Premiership. We could have had an opportunity for a few months, but it would have been hard because the team were probably going to come down anyway.
“And then you’re going back into the same league for the sake of two or three months of having that Premiership experience.
“You would maybe regret it overall, but I thought what we did and where we were sitting at the time, we had a good opportunity to go and kick on in the play-offs.”
Brown and former Hibs team-mate Whittaker are looking to get back into management and will discuss their options in the summer.
THAT’S MY BHOY…Neil Lennon and Scott Brown during their days together at Celtic.
Reflecting on how things went wrong at Ayr, Brown, speaking on The Warm-Up podcast, added: “We started off not too badly, we were in the play-offs until the last eight games.
“The amount of injuries that we got was scary and we didn’t have the strength in depth in the squad.
“It was easy enough to part company. The club were really good with us and we really enjoyed our time there.
“I enjoyed the day-to-day routine and the graft.
“The lads were brilliant, especially, that first season finishing third.
“We pushed Falkirk and Livingston quite far, but we probably didn’t have the strength in depth.”
Brown and Whittaker were also together when the Parkhead great took charge of English third-tier side Fleetwood Town in May 2022 before leaving in September the following year.
Now it could be third time lucky for the determined double-act.
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