The tone of the two interviews was very different.
Last week Steven Gerrard appeared on the Football Show for an old pals chat with his buddies from Sky Sports, witty anecdotes and plenty of giggling with Jamie Carragher and Jamie Redknapp. Not a single question about Celtic, Neil Lennon or wage deferrals.
Today Scott Brown joined the show with half of the time spent discussing matters at Ibrox.
The Celtic captain has been through it all before. The media driven desire to talk up ‘Old Firm’ rivalry as if nothing else matters in Scottish football, that other clubs are incapable of putting together a worthwhile challenge.
Carragher couldn’t wait to ask Brown about his former team-mate in charge at Ibrox, it was almost as if Scottish football had struck it lucky with the arrival of a celebrity manager.
In four attempts at winning a domestic trophy Gerrard has reached one cup final. The League Cup Final was lost to Celtic in December; Aberdeen twice and Hearts ended Gerrard’s other cup hopes to illustrate that there is life outside of the Glasgow bubble.
Coming up at 10am on The Football Show – Celtic captain @ScottBrown8 will be LIVE ??? #CelticFC #SPFL pic.twitter.com/CnW3TDoEtg
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) April 24, 2020
Towards the end of today’s appearance on The Football Show Carragher had build himself up to the big question, Brown, as ever saw the challenge coming, side stepped it and moved on.
CARRAGHER: From a Celtic point of view how good is it to have a good Rangers in the league, that means that you step up after that defeat, is that something that the Scottish game needs to be at the top of its game, pushing you to the title.
BROWN: (Laughing) It helps in Europe as well, it’s great to see Scottish clubs doing well in Europe, pushing and striving to be in the last 16, the last 32. It is good for Scotland, it’s good for TV, it brings more money into the game.
The challenge has always been there whether it’s been Rangers, Aberdeen, there has always been somebody challenging us for the title over the last eight years. We work extremely hard to make sure that we come out on top and this year is no different.
We want the season to finish, to play all the games and get the trophy. We think if we continue the way that we are playing we can extend our lead at the top. We’d love to see the league finished, get all the games done and dusted, show our quality.