Celtic legend Scott Brown has made his feelings abundantly clear after Jamie O'Hara claimed League One side Stockport County could win the Scottish Premiership in a now-deleted clip.
O'Hara, who played for Tottenham and Wolves across his 15-year playing career, has become a regular fixture on our screens since retiring, with his often outspoken views becoming a regular talking point.
This week, the talkSPORT pundit made a guest appearance on Sky Sports News and, like he often does, O'Hara sparked huge debate alongside Celtic podcaster Paul John Dykes on the show.
In short, the topic of Celtic's new manager was initially on the agenda. Wilfried Nancy from MLS side Columbus Crew has emerged as a potential candidate following the departure of Brendan Rodgers.
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“I can understand why he’s a candidate, absolutely, no doubt about it, but I can see that, obviously there’s a comparison there between the Scottish game and the MLS, both pros and cons," said Dykes, who described Nancy as a forward-thinking and progressive coach.
He added: "I know Jamie’s a massive fan of Scottish football, but Celtic are still a huge draw. Celtic are a massive draw. So I’m pretty sure there’ll be quite a few on the shortlist.”
Moments later, O'Hara suggested Celtic were not a massive draw, adding: "I mean, you get custard pie’d by managers who don’t want the job. You’re saying it’s a massive club, it isn’t, and it’s shown.”
Things soon escalated when O'Hara questioned whether a manager in the MLS would get a so-called "massive" job.
Dykes brought up Ange Postecoglou, who joined the Scottish side from Yokohama F. Marinos and won five domestic honours at Celtic before joining Tottenham in 2023, but O'Hara continued to jab.
In fact, he brought up the recent power rankings from Opta, which suggested the Scottish Premiership was the 39th strongest league in the world, two behind League One.
"You can't get away from the fact you are the 39th ranked league in the world, which is pretty shocking," O'Hara said. "Celtic are a big club, of course they are, I'm not saying they are not."
He added: "This season Stockport County are top of League One. Stockport County would go and win the Scottish Premier League this year, they would, they would win the Premier League. I am basing it on this season what I have watched of Celtic and Rangers."
The clip of O'Hara's debate with Dykes was uploaded to X but was later taken down following a backlash from fans. That being said, you can still watch the full discussion on YouTube.
Giving his take on the discussion, former Celtic captain Scott Brown played down suggestions that Stockport could win the Scottish Premiership.
"Tell Jamie to get back in his box, please," Brown said on talkSPORT.
"I did see the video talking about Stockport winning the league up here. I know where it's coming from, Hearts are top of the league so he is probably thinking (that) – but he has probably not watched any of the games up in Scotland in a long, long time.
"There’s been many players who came in from the English Premier League and struggled, especially at Celtic and Rangers as well."
"So, look, it’s a different environment and until you’ve been in that environment, I don’t think you really understand what it’s about," added Brown. "He was a fantastic player down the road, take nothing away from him in that aspect. He needs to maybe watch a little bit more Scottish football before he can talk about that.”
Topics: Celtic, Scottish Premiership
Jack Kenmare