'JK made KT': Scott Brown says John Kennedy's impact on Kieran Tierney shows suitability for Celtic interim manager role

Celtic captain Scott Brown believes John Kennedy’s pivotal role in Kieran Tierney becoming “one of the best left-backs in the world” is proof that the club have been placed in safe hands following the departure of Neil Lennon.

Celtic captain Scott Brown, pictured at training on Friday, says now interim manager John Kennedy, is a coach he "looks up to". (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

Kennedy’s promotion to interim Celtic manager this week led the Arsenal full-back to tweet the 37-year-old was a “hero” for doing “so much” for him at the Parkhead club. And Brown believes the coaching education Kennedy has dedicated himself to for a decade at Celtic subsequent to his playing career being cut short by injury makes him a figure to which all those who have come under his tutelage at Celtic feel indebted.

“As a coach, John is the one I look up to,” said the 35-year-old midfielder, who admits it has been “hard” dealing with the loss of a Lennon to whom he also feels he owes so much. “He sits and studies football, any league in the world. He watches, players, shapes and styles and tries to take from them. He is fantastic with the kids coming through, but he has also been fantastic with the first-team players that have come in under Brendan {Rodgers] and Neil. [Many] players out there will be thanking John and Neil for pretty much everything that they have done. John has brought a lot of the young players through. He has nurtured them and he produced Kieran, who is probably one of the best left-backs in the world right now, to be perfectly honest. He has helped every single person at this club over the last eight or nine years that I have known him.”

Brown said assuming any coaching duties in this week’s reshuffle - as was speculated in the immediate aftermath of Lennon’s parting - was never in his thinking as he enters the final months of his current deal. ““Definitely not,” said the midfielder. “It is not that long until the end of the season and it would be a bit premature now to say that I wanted to dive in or say that I wanted a coaching role. For me, right now is about trying to play for as long as I can.”

And Brown has revealed that, though Celtic are currently without a permanent manager and preparing for a summer of comprehensve overhaul in their operations with new chief executive Dominic McKay expected to arrive then alongside a director of football, he has not been left in complete limbo over his future as he enters the closing months of his current deal. Even if the player, in his 14th year at the club, has made no decisions about what he will do then.

“I spoke to Peter [Lawwell, outgoing chief executive] about the situation a couple of days ago as well and he says he it is completely and utterly up to myself whether I want to stay or go into a coaching role,” Brown said. “As it stands now I am here to support John and to try to help the lads as much as I possibly can and see what happens. I’ll see if I am still playing and take it from there at the end of the season.”

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