The Fleetwood Town role is Scott Brown's first in management after he left Aberdeen in March where he was player-coach; Brown won 23 major honours during his 19-year career as a player
Thursday 12 May 2022 17:47, UK
Scott Brown, the former Celtic captain, has been named as the new Fleetwood Town manager.
The League One club interviewed a number of potential appointments but was "the outstanding candidate", according to chairman Andy Pilley, who described Brown as "a born leader, a serial winner, and incredibly serious about becoming a successful manager".
The role is Brown's first in management after he left Aberdeen in March just nine months into a two-year contract where he was player-coach under former boss Stephen Glass, but departed when Jim Goodwin came in "to focus on his coaching development".
The 36-year-old made the shortlist at St Mirren before they appointed Stephen Robinson and has also been linked with the vacancy at Raith Rovers.
Brown is now set to make a managerial debut in England after he announced his retirement last week, ending a 19-year career in which he made a total of 787 appearances for Hibernian, Celtic and Aberdeen, and also earned 55 Scotland caps.
"I've always had a real desire to move into management and can't wait to meet the players and staff and get started," said Brown. "The hard work starts now - I'm now looking forward to getting onto the grass."
He won 10 Scottish Premiership titles with Celtic - nine coming in succession between their 2011-12 and 2019-20 triumphs. Brown, who turns 37 next month, also played a key role in their quadruple treble team which won domestic trebles every season between 2016-17 and 2019-20.
Brown's glittering career started with Hibernian, but is best remembered for his 14-year stint at Celtic and impressive Scotland career.
After League Cup success at Easter Road, the midfielder joined Celtic from Hibs in 2007 for £4.4m - a record transfer fee between two Scottish clubs.
He became a club legend, lifting 10 top-flight titles at Celtic as well as six Scottish Cups and another six League Cups during 14 years at the club.
Brown captained the Parkhead side to an invincible season in Brendan Rodgers' first year as manager, as well as four successive trebles.
Often revelling in his role as a pantomime villain, Brown featured in 44 games against Old Firm rivals Rangers and had a 51 per cent win rate in the fixture.
Brown made his 600th appearance for Celtic on 6 December 2020, however, just three months later it was confirmed he would leave at the end of the season to join Aberdeen.
He didn't get the fairy tale ending he'd hoped for at Celtic though with a trophy-less season and his final home game played inside an empty stadium. However, that didn't stop the three same words being used after the match: captain, leader, legend.
Despite never leading the national side to a major finals, Brown had a memorable 13-year spell playing for Scotland - a journey that started in 2005 when he made his debut against the USA.
He won 50 caps before announcing his decision to quit international football in 2016 to focus on his club career.
That move was short-lived and he returned to the squad under his former Celtic manager Gordon Strachan months later in a bid to help lead the side to reach the 2018 World Cup.
The midfielder, who also captained the national side 21 times, then took the decision to make himself unavailable for selection after talks with then manager Alex McLeish.
When Brown agreed a move to Aberdeen before the end of last season, he saw the opportunity as a first real step on the pathway to becoming a manager in his own right one day.
After being made captain of the team, he still featured regularly under former manager Glass - something the 36-year-old was keen on.
However, after Glass' sacking Jim Goodwin arrived from St Mirren. In a strange twist of fate - Brown was considered by the Paisley club to replace Goodwin but instead, Stephen Robinson took over and Brown has been on the sidelines since due to injury.
