Celtic captain Scott Brown praises ‘unbelievable’ Brendan Rodgers

Scott Brown has defended the “unbelievable” Brendan Rodgers for extending his playing career after the former Celtic manager was branded a fraud by some visiting fans at Tynecastle.

Celtic captain Scott Brown celebrates at full time after the win over Hearts. Picture: SNS

Celtic maintained their eight-point lead at the top of the Premiership after a last-gasp 2-1 win over Hearts in the first match of Neil Lennon’s second spell as manager. Odsonne Edouard scored the winner in time added on after Brown’s deep cross.

But a banner was unveiled before kicking off slamming Rodgers for his decision to leave Celtic for Leicester City with just 11 games leagues left of the season. He was on course to win a triple Treble.

Brown hailed Rodgers and said there would always be people willing to give the manager stick, whatever he had done. The midfielder signed a new two-year contract with Celtic earlier this month.

Brown revealed he had been able to speak to Rodgers despite the speed of his exit and wished him well for the future.

“I spoke to Brendan, I wished him all the best,” he said. “He’s been unbelievable for me. I was written off this season, the season before, the season before, the season before....

“I just keep coming back.

“He realised that I still had a couple of years left in my legs and he put a lot of faith in me and a lot of trust.

“There is always going to be a lot of stick but for me he was brilliant on a personal level and that is what really counts. It is just sad to see him go but as I say the fans were unbelievable today, singing for 90 minutes whether is Lenny or whether it was Brendan, they are always following us.

“It is never going to be a great time to have a manager leaving but he has left us in a great place,” he added. “We are eight points clear in the league and we have 11 games left.

“It is always going to be a shock when a manager leaves a club. But we need to just continue what we are doing. He has left us in a great situation. We have won seven trophies out of seven since he came in and now we need to make sure that we need to keep going on for him as well.”

Brown praised Lennon for making an immediate impression on the players. “The gaffer is very positive and he just wants us to continue and keep doing all the things that we are doing,” he said. “It is similar to what Brendan did and it is great because he has come in and realised that we have been champions for the last seven years and he wants to maintain that this year.

“As soon as a game comes along everyone’s head forgets about everything else. It was a sad time with the manager leaving but the main focus for us was coming here and getting three points and that is what we managed to do.

“We are all going to miss Brendan,” he continued. “He’s been fantastic for this club. For me, the club wasn’t in a great place two-and-a-half years ago. We were winning the league, but look at the football we were playing. Brendan re-energised the whole club. He took us in to the Champions League these last few years as well.

“For me personally, it was sad to see him leave.

“But we have another great manager coming in who will build on what Brendan has done and hopefully keep it going until the end of the season.

The gaffer is always positive, especially in the team talks before the game. He’ll bring a different game plan as everyone sees the game differently.

“But he’s been there and seen it all before. He’s won trophies here and that’s why we brought him back in.”