Three-legged Scottish title race again, predicts Brown

Scotland is in for another three-way title race this coming season, former Celtic captain Scott Brown has predicted.

Celtic retained the title on the final day of last season with a home win over Hearts to overtake the long-time leaders, with Rangers having slipped to third in the final weeks.

Since then, Hearts have lost head coach Derek McInnes to Rangers, replacing him with former Sint-Truiden boss Wouter Vrancken, while Celtic have given veteran Martin O’Neill the manager’s job full-time after he did so well in interim charge.

“I think it’s going to be a three-legged race yet again,” Brown said, speaking at the Scottish Open golf pro-am.

“I think Hearts have been an actual delight for Scottish football. They’ve done really, really well. I thought Derek did a fantastic job and Martin’s come in at the right point in time.

“If Martin was there for the whole time, Celtic win the league, nice and easy, but Del’s went to Rangers now and he’s a very, very good man-manager and he brings out the best of people.

“Looking at what he does and how he deals with his team, he’ll bring in some more Scottish people, English-based people, that understand the club and the culture as well, which, to be fair, I think Celtic’s done really well over the years.”