Football legend with 10 league titles turned down Newcastle United - Cheick Tiote soon arrived
Former Celtic defender Charlie Mulgrew has revealed his one-time teammate Scott Brown turned down Newcastle United.
In January 2010, the Magpies were on course for an instant Premier League return under Chris Hughton. Newcastle had been backed to “do a Leeds” and drop to the third tier but rebuilt with a strong British core.
The likes of Kevin Nolan, Nicky Butt, Joey Barton and Andy Carroll galvanised the dressing room following the despair of the previous campaign. The Magpies added further reinforcements in the winter to get the promotion bid over the line.
Danny Simpson’s loan deal became permanent while Mike Williamson, Wayne Routledge, Leon Best, Fitz Hall and Patrick van Aanholt joined the club. But Newcastle also wanted Celtic legend Brown to add extra bite in midfield.
A tough-tackling midfielder, his snub was perhaps the precursor to Toon chiefs signing Cheick Tiote the following summer. Former Celtic teammate Mulgrew has opened up about the saga 14 years later.
“Ah, but the thing is, he’s not that type of person (aggressive) at all,” he said about Brown to the Undr the Cosh podcast. “Off the pitch, he’s a completely different person. That’s just how he gets himself up for the game and gets himself in the mode for it and he gets the best out of himself.
“But actually, as a person, just chats away, chilled, not aggressive at all. He was very good. He used to talk himself down and he never got the credit for his football abilities.
“His football abilities were unreal. He could have played in the Premier League. Well, I think he had a chance to go to Newcastle at one point, and I don’t know what the script was, but he was happy at Celtic.
“He loved playing for Celtic. To be honest, when you play for Celtic, it’s a hard one because the English Premiership is brilliant but you’ve got the Champions League at Celtic. It’s such a big club. It’s a difficult decision to make, I’d imagine, for a lot of people.”