Obsessed Craig Levein has claimed that Scott Brown set out to be deliberately booked against Kilmarnock!
The Hearts boss was enjoying a 1-0 win over St Johnstone shortly after Brown was booked by Kevin Clancy in the 1-0 defeat at Rugby Park.
Last week the SFA Compliance Officer overlooked Levein’s claim that players need extra protection from Brown but surely the former Scotland boss will be ordered to appear at Hampden to explain his latest outburst.
“I’m not trying to irritate anybody,” Levein explained to The Sun. “I’m just pointing stuff out.
“On that front actually, Scott Brown mentioned last week that he got booked because of me bringing attention to his proclivity to foul people.
“I disagree with that completely. If Scott didn’t get booked against Kilmarnock last week and got booked against St Johnstone then he would have missed the Rangers game.
“I’ll leave that to you to deduce. I’m just pointing out things that are obvious.
“I’m just pointing out as a retort to his statement last week that it was me who got him booked.
“I think you’ll find his intentions were always to get himself booked in that game so he didn’t miss the Rangers game. That sort of thing happens all the time.
“Anybody who is sensible would look at the situation if there is a particular game they want to play in and know they need to get booked to miss a game prior to that.
“I did it myself when I was playing, so it happens. I don’t know Scott’s intentions but I’m just pointing out the fact. That’s all.”
Perhaps Levein could list some other incidents when players have deliberately got booked to serve a suspension at a convenient time, after all it apparently happens ‘all the time’.
Brown was booked for his first foul against Kilmarnock in a match that was erratically refereed by Clancy.
Kilmarnock were awarded five free kicks during the match with three Celtic players booked by the FIFA referee.
Over at Tynecastle, Hearts, who are bottom of the Fair Play League, picked up four bookings from 14 free kicks awarded to St Johnstone.
