Scott Brown tells Celtic supporters they crossed a line with Dermot Desmond protest
Scott Brown has criticised Celtic supporters for targeting Dermot Desmond at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, insisting protests against the club’s hierarchy should remain within football.
The former Hoops captain believes those involved crossed a line when tennis balls were thrown towards Celtic’s principal shareholder during the tournament at St Andrews.
The demonstration marked another escalation in the increasingly strained relationship between sections of the Celtic support and the Parkhead board, with recruitment, communication and the club’s overall direction continuing to attract criticism.
However, Brown believes taking those frustrations beyond the football environment is unacceptable.
Speaking on The Warm-Up podcast alongside Chris Sutton and Kris Boyd, Brown said: “The tennis balls don’t help. It wasn’t great. You don’t want that getting outside football.
“I’ve had it happen to me. You’ll have had it happen to you as well in the streets, you get called all sorts. It has to be kept (within football). It can’t be every two seconds because the man’s got to live.
“If that was them (the fans), they wouldn’t want it to happen to them. That’s the only way I’d judge that.
“I understand the negativity coming towards the board, but they need to merge back together. The fans need the board, the board need the fans, and they all need the players.
“Somehow, if there’s a disconnect somewhere, it becomes a hard place to play football, because it’s just negativity week after week.
“Fans want change at board level? That’s way above my paygrade. I’d love to sit here and say how that happens and how you can merge it together.
“For me, what the board did when I was there, they were brilliant. Peter, Michael, Dermot, they were all fantastic.”
Despite defending his experiences with Celtic’s hierarchy, Brown acknowledged that the club had failed to adequately address certain areas of Martin O’Neill’s squad during the summer transfer window.
In particular, he believes Celtic should have recruited a direct replacement for Arne Engels following his departure to West Ham United.
Brown also raised concerns over the lack of natural cover for Kieran Tierney at left-back.
He added: “Look, they’re making the stadium better, they’ve put money into the team. They’ve signed three midfielders in (Oliver) Sorensen, (Mika) Baur and (Joel) Van den Berg.
“I agree they needed to replace Engels with a box-to-box midfielder. And I still think they need another left-back, because if Kieran gets injured, Scales isn’t the answer.”
