Neil Lennon thinks Celtic avoided ‘disaster’ last year when potential transfer fell through

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Celtic captain Scott Brown could have moved to Australia last summer.

Celtic boss Neil Lennon has told The Scottish Sun that he thought Scott Brown heading to Australia would have been a ‘disaster’.

The Bhoys signed Brown from Hibernian in 2007, and he has been the heartbeat of their midfield ever since, as he’s now won nine league titles with the club.

Brown is approaching 600 appearances for Celtic, and shows no real sign of slowing down despite the fact that he will be 35 this summer.

Yet last season, Brown had a real decision to make about his future, as he could have played out the final days of his career over in Australia.

Western United wanted to sign Brown, viewing him as a big-name addition just like Panagiotis Kone, Besart Berisha and Alessandro Diamanti.

However, Brown chose to stay with Celtic, rejecting a big move down under to sign a new extension with the Bhoys until the summer of 2021.

Now, Lennon has admitted that he thought it ‘would have been a disaster’ for Celtic if Brown had gone to Australia, believing that he sets the tempo and keeps standards high at Parkhead.

Lennon added that Brown might be even better after this break due to coronavirus, and believes he will definitely be playing next season rather than hanging up his boots this summer.

“I wasn’t here at the time but, when I heard the talk about him possibly going to Australia, I thought it would have been a disaster,” said Lennon. “He is looking well and he has had a great season so far. Scott sets the tempo at this club for all the players. In training, he still has that great desire to work hard and all the boys take their lead from him as captain. You can’t give him that, or coach that into someone, it is built in him.”

“He wants to keep pushing himself and also the team on to bigger and better things in the future. During this spell of not playing and when we have games coming up, if he suspects even the slightest bit of complacency within the team then he nips it in the bud straight away. Players listen to him and he is a great role model to the rest of the squad The way he has played and the way he leads on and off the park, he has been exemplary up until now. This wee break might do him the world of good. But he will still be around next year, that’s for sure. I think he would be a huge loss to us as a club if he stopped playing,” he added.