SCOTT BROWN has revealed he’s aiming to play until he’s FORTY – just like old boss Gordon Strachan.
The Celtic skipper, at the age of 34, has been unstoppable in his silverware quest and is poised to get his hands on a well-deserved ninth successive Premiership medal in the forthcoming weeks.
Brown has been the champions’ onfield leader in recent seasons and has been pivotal on the Hoops’ historic march to the phenomenal treble treble while the truly astounding fourth domestic clean sweep was on the cards this time around until the game went into cold storage due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Neil Lennon’s side, with the League Cup already won in December with a 1-0 success over Steven Gerrard’s Ibrox outfit, were 13 points ahead at the top of the Premiership with only eight games left to play when the lockdown was ordered in mid-March.
The club’s 51st flag was as good as in the trophy cabinet at Parkhead while the holders were due to face Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden on Easter Sunday for the right to play either Hibs or Hearts in the showpiece showdown.
Brown has not been displaying any signs of slowing down and he named Strachan, the man who paid £4.4million to the Easter Road side for his services in 2007, as his inspiration.
Strachan, who kicked off his career at Dundee before moving to Aberdeen and then onto Manchester United, hit the milestone as he saw out his playing career at Coventry City.
The influential Celtic captain, speaking to PLZ Soccer, admitted: “As long as I can keep up with the lads, I deserve to be there. The day I struggle in training and games and I know myself and the manager knows it and 60,000 people know it, too – that’s the day I call it quits.
“I’m not going to say it will be one or two seasons – you see Gordon Strachan going on until 40 and Ryan Giggs playing late on.
“You have people like that who you look up to and you think: ‘If I work as hard as I possibly can, then can I push my body to play till 39 or 40?’.
“You never know. I have loved every minute at Celtic and would never want to leave.
“But if a time comes that I feel I can still play and the manager maybe thinks my fitness level isn’t up to playing in the Champions League or Europa League and 60 games a season – they might think I could play 20 games a season or let me move elsewhere to enjoy the last few years of my career chilling out and playing but not winning trophies.
“For me, I signed for Celtic to win trophies and I have done not too bad at that. I still have that drive.”
