Graeme Shinnie has attempted to create the impression that he has some sort of running rivalry with Scott Brown!
The former Aberdeen midfielder left Pittodrie a year ago with a full set of runners-up medals as he watched the hoops captain sweep the board with a Treble Treble of honours.
Along the way Celtic won all six matches at Fortress Pittodrie with captain Shinnie always attempting to wind things up ahead of visits from the champions.
Like Shay Logan, Shinnie never managed to take his pre-match claims onto the pitch, typically he’d barely be seen for 80 minutes before picking up a late booking for a foul on Brown.
Shinnie did enjoy one day in the Celtic Park sunshine, winning a dead rubber in May 2018 as Brendan Rodgers’ side prepared to be presented with the SPFL trophy after batting aside the challenge from Derek McInnes’ runners-up.
Covering the Open Goal interview The Sun reports:
Reflecting on the flashpoint from the clash on the final day of the 2017/18 season and the battles between the duo, Shinnie told Open Goal host Si Ferry: “It all sort of stemmed from the bad tackle that I done on him.
“We had to beat them to finish second above Rangers that season and we were away to Celtic at Celtic Park. We were 1-0 up and I put in a horrendous tackle and I didn’t mean it. Like I wasn’t purposely going for him. I put in a bad tackle, I was late and I caught him in the ankle.
“He went mental. He was like ‘your legs are getting broken’. I had been called up to the Scotland squad in the summer and he was like ‘I’m coming out of retirement and I’m going to break your legs in training’.
“I love that kind of stuff. I don’t think he ever wanted to do it, like he was never that kind of guy. I done Sky Sports after the game and they obviously asked me about the tackle and what I meant to say was ‘there was loads of those tackles in the game’.
“In the end I’ve ended up saying something like ‘what goes around comes around’ and absolute killed myself. They pumped us 3-0 at Pittodrie and they battered us. The football they were playing was unreal. He came up behind me and whispered in my ear ‘do you want a touch of the ball wee man?’ He plays the same way as I sort of play, we were bouncing off each other.”
In the next Celtic v Aberdeen match, in September 2018 Scott Brown grabbed a Post It note passed to Shinnie with a tactical message from McInnes.