Scott Brown’s mistake in knocking back St Johnstone job

In partnership with

The Celtic Star

·22 April 2026

Scott Brown’s mistake in knocking back St Johnstone job

Former Celtic captain Scott Brown has confirmed that he declined an opportunity to take charge of a Scottish Premiership club (St Johnstone) during his spell as manager of Ayr United…

Scott Brown and Neil Lennon at Hampden ahead of the Scottish Cup semi-final between Dunfermline and Falkirk on Saturday 18 April 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou

The 39-year-old recently left the Championship side after two years at the helm. Having narrowly missed out on promotion via the play-offs last season, Ayr had been in contention again before a poor run of results saw them dragged towards the relegation play-off picture.

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Brown – working alongside assistant Steven Whittaker – said the pair chose not to pursue the top-flight offer out of loyalty to Ayr United and the project they were building.

He also suggested the Premiership side that approached him were likely heading for relegation, while he believed his own team still had a strong chance of achieving promotion.

Speaking via The Warm-Up, Broony said: “It’s football, you can be flying high, and look, we had opportunities to go elsewhere and you stay and try to be loyal at the time.”

Scott Brown at Hampden ahead of the Scottish Cup semi-final between Dunfermline and Falkirk on Saturday 18 April 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou

“Maybe we should have jumped ship at that point in time. We could have went to the Premiership. We could have had an opportunity for a few months, but it would have been hard because the team were probably going to come down anyway.”

“And then you’re going back into the same league for the sake of two or three months of having that Premier League experience. You would maybe regret it overall, but I thought what we done and where we were sitting there at the time, we had a good opportunity to go and kick on in the play-offs.

Reflecting on Ayr United’s campaign, Brown acknowledged that a growing list of injuries ultimately proved too difficult for the squad to overcome.

The former Celtic skipper added: “We started off not too bad, we were in the play-offs until the last eight games. The amount of injuries that we got was scary at that point and we didn’t have the strength in depth in the squad.”

“It was easy enough to part company. The club were really good with us so we’ve got no regrets whatsoever. We really enjoyed our time down there. It was some drive, I’m not going to lie.

“My alarm went at half past five, I’m still waking up at half past five thinking, ‘what am I doing with my life, what time is the golf course open at’? I enjoyed the day-to-day routine, the graft and going down together.

“It was great, we’d take turns and we’re close anyway as everybody knows. It was good for us to be working together. The lads were brilliant, especially, that first season finishing third.

“We pushed Falkirk and Livi quite far, but we probably didn’t have the strength in depth in the squad.”

Last night St Johnstone won 2-0 at Dunfermline to secure the Championship title and with it a speedy return to the Scottish Premiership. Congratulations to St Johnstone!

Conor Spence