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Celtic were without the suspended Scott Brown on Saturday when they beat Aberdeen 3-1 and it's probably fair to say that his absence did not have a huge detrimental influence on the side. Marc Crosas and Paul Hartley teamed up in a central midfield for Celtic's first SPL outing minus Brown this season and the manager was pleased with what he saw and heartened before the trip to Ibrox. "No disrespect to Scott." said Strachan. "And I'm sure he will understand what I'm saying, but I think it takes pressure off him as well that we have won without him.
"I've been in positions myself where people have said, You have to play because we need you.' It's lovely to see someone else take up the mantle." he added. "Paul came in and played well, and I thought Marc was fantastic. He's still a very young man and had played maybe just four or five first team games before he came to us. Few of them were in a consecutive run like the one he has been asked to handle here. So I'm delighted with the way he has progressed."
The Celtic gaffer is happy with the quality backup but of course, given the choice, he would rather have Brown available for the crunch game against the Huns. Broony's £4.4m transfer from Hibs, Celtic's feeder club since 1888 as an infamous banner once almost said, is beginning to look like a bargain with many predicting even greater things for the dynamic midfielder. Such has been the form of the energetic Brown that many Scottish observers think that it's only a matter of time before he succumbs to the irresistible lure of the EPL. Unavoidable? His boss wouldn't like to think so. "It's not inevitable." he said. "I think there are players who stay at clubs for a long time. It depends how much they enjoy it. How good he'll be is what we should be looking at. It's up to himself, really.
"Scott has worked with good people at Hibs." added Strachan. "And, hopefully, he's worked with good people at Celtic. Where he goes, I don't know. It's up to him. But he can play at a really high level, that's for sure."