Dundee boss John Brown: I've shook Charles Green's hand...........

[ian1964 10,416]

but I don't regret a thing I've said about the Rangers owner

 

 

BOMBER says he spoke to Charles Green at a funeral recently but insists the jury is still out on whether the man in charge at Ibrox will turn the club around.

 

 

 

JOHN Brown says he can count his true friends on the fingers of one hand. Charles Green isnâ??t one of them.

 

Itâ??s the YouTube image of â??Bomberâ? verbally battering Rangersâ?? owner with criticism from the front door at Ibrox during the earliest days of Greenâ??s takeover thatâ??s left a mental image emblazoned on the minds of those who have deserted John.

 

And created a negative mind-set among others who have decried his appointment as Dundee manager, portraying him as footballâ??s equivalent of Hannibal Lecter.

 

But Brown and Green have now met for the first time, by accident, and drawn a temporary line in the sand where their conflict is concerned.

 

â??It was this week at the funeral of Irene Love, a kitchen worker who was like a mother to the Rangers players and an auntie to our children when they visited Ibrox,â? he said.

 

â??I stopped to shake Charles by the hand after the service and wished him well with Rangers.

 

â??He returned the handshake and told me to keep going at Dens Park.

 

â??Do I regret standing on the front step at Ibrox and saying what I did about him? Not at all.

 

â??I got a lot of criticism for doing it and people I thought were my friends started to distance themselves from me after that night.

 

â??They said the whole episode was embarrassing but thatâ??ll only be the case if Iâ??m proved wrong about Charles.

 

â??Itâ??s up to him now to prove he has Rangersâ?? best interests at heart and his first set of financial figures released showed a loss of £7million.

 

â??Thatâ??s not a great start.

 

â??And I wasnâ??t the only one who had reservations about Charles taking the club over. Wasnâ??t Walter Smith part of a rival consortium at the same time?â?

 

John spent 18 years at Ibrox, eight of them as a player and 10 as a coach. He possesses every SFA coaching badge and has held his European coaching licence for nine years.

 

But since replacing Barry Smith at Dens Park, Brown has been accused by Dundee Unitedâ??s Michael Gardyne of sending players out to deliberately kick the opposition.

 

He also drew attention to himself with his suggestion the best way for Scotland to deal with a troublesome opponent like Gareth Bale might be to take away his legs, prompting Wales manager Chris Coleman to brand him a â??Neanderthal.â?

 

Then there are the allegations he only got the Dundee job in the first place because of an old palsâ?? act that started between him and Dens chief executive Scot Gardiner when both worked at Rangers.

 

Throw in a row which has left keeper Rab Douglas a Dens Park exile after a sharp exchange of views with the manager and Brownâ??s early days in charge could best be described as eventful.

 

â??There are people in the media who have what I call their coffee-morning favourites,â? he said. â??By that I mean out-of-work managers who theyâ??d have liked to have seen get the job at Dens in front of me because it would have suited them.

 

â??Iâ??ll admit I was surprised by the reaction of some former players to my appointment.

 

â??I might have had the upper hand on them when we were playing against each other and that has something to do with their objection to me.

 

â??But nothing upsets me any more. There would have been a time when I was less wise and mature and might have reacted to the put downs but now I think twice.

 

â??There was one radio programme I heard where I felt the criticism went too far and wasnâ??t just about football.

 

â??Iâ??ll admit I got hold of a journalistâ??s mobile number after that but I didnâ??t call him. And I wonâ??t.

 

â??Iâ??m too busy rehabilitating myself at Dundee.

 

â??And if I can improve the clubâ??s infrastructure by starting up a scouting network and putting a youth development programme in place Iâ??ll regard it as the greatest achievement of my career, better than anything I achieved with Rangers as a player in the 1980s.â?

 

That revelation was followed by another one, even more startling for those who equate Brown with one club more than any other.

 

â??When I look back on it,â? he said. â??I spent too many years with Rangers. I was in with the bricks at Ibrox and was going through the motions for too long before I left.

 

â??I always hoped I might get the chance one day to elevate myself from youth team coaching to the first team but the step up never came and I should have stood on my own two feet earlier than I did.

 

â??If you asked me now what Iâ??d do if Dundee offered me the managerâ??s job on a permanent basis and Rangers asked me back to Ibrox my answer would be to stay at Dens every time.â?

 

Brown is dismissed by critics as a dinosaur, someone who was a hard case as a player and an even bigger one as a manager.

 

He sees himself as a 51-year-old grandfather to 17-month old Alfie and a doting babysitter when he isnâ??t trying to make better players out of his squad at Dundee.

 

CALMING

 

â??The wee fellaâ??s had a real calming influence on me and the rest of the stuff I take with my tongue firmly embedded in my cheek,â? he said.

 

â??My first instruction to my players is to enjoy themselves and strive for a good level of football when they play.

 

â??If there are late tackles thatâ??s a tribute to the opposition being too fast for my players. I donâ??t send my team out to be malicious or to maim anybody, no matter what anyone says about me.

 

â??But I do send them out to make sure the other team donâ??t get an easy ride. And if you ask any of them theyâ??ll tell you Iâ??ve never raised my voice in the dressing room.

 

â??I tell them that they were all signed by Barry and they should show the public he had an eye for a player all right.

 

â??Terry Butcher paid me a nice compliment when we played

Inverness. He said afterwards weâ??d put them under pressure and theyâ??d had one of their poorest games of the season as a result.

 

â??I studied coaching methods at places like Barcelona, AC Milan and Porto while at Rangers and it was Walter who saw enough in me to put me in charge of Rangers Under-18s to start my coaching career.

 

â??But now all that people see in their heads is this image of me standing outside the front door at Ibrox and rallying the Rangers supporters to be wary of Green.

 

â??Only good performances by my team will take that away and give me a fresh start.â?

 

Brown took satisfaction from watching last nightâ??s game between Scotland and Wales because so many of Gordon Strachanâ??s squad owed their early

development to him at Murray Park.

 

â??I had Allan McGregor, Chris Burke, Alan Hutton and Charlie Adam,â? he said. â??I know Iâ??m at my best when Iâ??m on a training field and it gave me a lot of pleasure to see them involved in a World Cup qualifying tie.

 

â??If I am called old school I regard that as a compliment, not a criticism. Old school inside a football club means discipline and respect.

 

â??I believed it was right that Rangersâ?? players came in to training every day clean shaven and wearing a collar and tie.

 

â??Dick Advocaat didnâ??t get that and thatâ??s when players started to turn up with holes in their denims. But you need old-fashioned values.

 

â??I watched my old team-mate Gazza give a television interview the other day after returning from treatment for alcoholism and it broke my heart.

 

â??Too many people used him.

 

â??Thatâ??s why Iâ??m relaxed about saying I could count my friends on one hand. Iâ??m in a good place and if Iâ??ve made mistakes along the way itâ??s made me a better person at the same time.

 

â??My mother was told by doctors when I was just 15 years old that too many cartilage problems meant it might be in my best interests not to play football.

 

â??I told her I wasnâ??t having that

diagnosis and went on to make a professional career for myself.

 

â??Now Iâ??m still defying whatever opinion it is that people

have of me.

 

â??Thatâ??s what keeps you going, isnâ??t it?â?

 

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/john-brown-doesnt-regret-charles-1779509

[simplythebest 0]

You didn't just express reservations bomber, you virtually accused the man of being a criminal.

[Gingerger 0]

]â??When I look back on it' date='â? he said. â??I spent too many years with Rangers. I was in with the bricks at Ibrox and was going through the motions for too long before I left."

[/quote']

 

How true, and how many others does this apply to within the old boys network at Murray Park?

[the gunslinger 3,366]

a very frank interview. he was a talented player people think he was a hard man thug but he was good on the ball and indeed scored a hat trick v us for dundee and plaed center mid.

[GovanAllan 0]

I think if he's honest he will look back and cringe a little.

[foggy dewhurst 0]

just you worry about your new club

[Gazza_8 233]

He's got to feel embarrassed about the way he acted during the summer.

[Dragosani 60]

What happened to the revelations that he was going to tell us about? I remember (from here) that he had a meeting with fans where he said he would dish the dirt!