Iconic Scott Brown leaves a void that is impossible to fill 🍀 | OneFootball

Iconic. Invincible. Irreplaceable.

When it comes to Celtic captain Scott Brown, that famous North Curve banner said it all.

Two days after the midfielder announced his Parkhead exit after 14 years at the club, it is yet to really hit home that there will be someone else wearing the armband next season.

He leaves with over 600 appearances for the club to put him seventh in the all time list but his 127 in European competition are more than any other hooped hero.

Brown has racked up an astonishing 22 trophies, averaging one every 28 games, and bowing out in style with the Scottish Cup would put him level on the medal haul with Billy McNeill. Not bad company.

The rest of the league’s combined trophy count sits at 50. For one man at one club to achieve almost half that is staggering.

But to reel off the roll of honour doesn’t do one of the game’s great characters justice.

Everyone who played with him at Lennoxtown paints a picture of an infectious spirit and a man who was at the centre of much of the fun.

Yet when it came game time and you saw that steely-eyed, ultra-focused stare down the tunnel, it was a man whose team would follow him into battle no questions asked.

It was a rare treat anytime the cameras captured a glimpse of his impassioned last-minute speeches inside the Huddle. How do you follow that?

Leaders like the 55-cap Scotland international are few and far between now and the Bhoys will find him difficult to replace, if not impossible.

He talked the talk and then swaggered the walk with the confidence of a man who has ran Scottish football for over a decade.

As he once warned Joey Barton when the Englishman claimed Brown wasn’t in his league, ‘you’re coming to my league’. One infamous drop ball later, there was no disputing that.

Because of his reputation as one of football’s biggest pantomime villains who effortlessly got under rivals’ skin, Brown never got the credit he deserved on ability alone.

The guy could, and still can at the age of 35, play with the best of them and his presence in the line-up was always reassuring.

Critics holding his refusal to entertain moves elsewhere against him is nonsensical. Journeymen in England come and go but Brown will be remembered forever in Glasgow’s east end. If it was good enough for Paul McStay, it will do another Celtic skipper too.

It was the combination of quality on the park, camaraderie behind the scenes and an unwavering will to will that made him such a special player to share a dressing room with.

“There’s a million things that make a top player. Is Scott the most technically gifted that I’ve played with? No, but in terms of attitude, desire and will to win and leadership, he’s up there with the best,” cult hero Paddy McCourt told OneFootball.

“He’s an amazing person who is so grateful to be at the club. You only have to look at his performances to see that. He has a brilliant sense of when to have a laugh and then a sense of when to be serious and represent the club. He always had that down to a tee.”

There have been times Brown has even been taken for granted among his own support and under-appreciated or written off, hampered by poor performances as he played through issues that only came to light later.

Yet he was always there and that, ironically, made it easier to overlook him at times but there’s no doubt that he leaves to an outpouring of love, the real shame being that he is denied a proper farewell. Although he’s had his testimonial, he deserves a packed Paradise for a real send-off.

The former Hibs man has earned every bit of that for the countless good memories he leaves behind. Ask 10 Celtic fans their favourite memory and you could easily receive 10 different responses.

The birth of the Broony? Winning the league at Rugby Park? Turning the 9IAR tide with his last gasp winner against Hamilton? The strut at Pittodrie after three Dons tried and failed to clear him out? The list is endless.

It can only be hoped that a man who for so many will be the captain of their lifetime returns in some capacity. Be it on the bench or in bronze on the Celtic Way.

Celtic, to quote from the song which never really caught on (one of the very things he lacked in Glasgow), really won’t be the same without him.