The untold Scott Brown story of how Celtic legend went from Tony Mowbray axe bombshell to captain’s armband

In a career sprinkled with sliding doors moments, this was the one which would eventually change everything. For both Scott Brown and Celtic.

Brown’s fledgling Parkhead career had reached a crossroads following the departure of Gordon Strachan as manager. And although an old mentor in Tony Mowbray had arrived on the scene as the new boss, within six months Brown had been written off as £4.4million worth of dead wood. In December of 2009, Mowbray pulled the injured 24-year-old aside at the club’s Lennoxtown HQ and instructed him to find himself a new club in the January window.

When Record Sport broke the bombshell news, Celtic issued an angry denial and went to the lengths of releasing a statement in Brown’s name, denying that any such conversation had taken place. On February 2, Brown returned to action from Mowbray’s bench with 16 minutes remaining in a 1-0 defeat at Kilmarnock. To his astonishment, he was given the armband for the first time before stepping onto the pitch.

And now, speaking in the brand new Off The Record podcast, the man who would go on to captain the club to nine successive league titles, has opened up on the decision which altered the course of history. Brown said: “I understand new managers come in and want to bring in their own players. But I was there to prove a point.

“Just because the manager said to me, ‘Yeah, you can leave’ that was me. I was like, ‘Yeah sure I can! I’ll make sure I’m still here. I’ll be playing, mate. Week in week out!’

“Then, at the end of the window, somehow I ended up becoming captain. I don’t know how that worked! But it happened.

“Incredible moments like that change you. I maybe wasn’t playing my best and Peter Grant (Mowbray’s assistant) said he’d drive me anywhere!