Scott Brown has detailed the scale of John Kennedy’s influence at Celtic, claiming the former coach played a major part in keeping the club successful behind the scenes.
Kennedy worked under several managers at Parkhead after his playing career was cut short by injury.
While much of his work happened away from public view, Brown believes his role stretched across almost every area of Celtic’s football operation.
Asked how good Kennedy was, the former Hoops captain did not hesitate.
“Unbelievable. Honestly, he ran that whole club at times,” Brown told Open Goal.
Brown said Kennedy was involved in far more than first-team coaching sessions.
“He was in doing training, organising players coming in, what we worked, going to hotels, sorting things out,” he explained.
“If John wasn’t there for large periods, we wouldn’t have had the dominance that we did have because you had one guy that could do everything,” he said.
Kennedy was forced to retire from playing at a young age following a serious knee injury.
Brown believes that setback led him to build experience across several different parts of the club.
“See, because he’s injury, you had to then go and focus on scouting, recruitment, doing shit on the computer, how to work computers, pulling people together and he just had this whole, just had everything pulled together and then Brendan’s came and his tactical knowledge and everything just went through,” Brown said.
Kennedy later became a trusted part of Brendan Rodgers’ coaching team.
“You can see why Brendan’s taking him now because he leads by example on that training pitch and Brendan knows whatever he wants, John’s going to lead it anyway and he’s going to take it,” he added.
Brown also explained how Kennedy’s responsibility grew during Rodgers’ first spell at Celtic.
Rodgers took control of most sessions during his first season, before gradually giving Kennedy and Chris Davies more freedom.
“At the end, so Brendan came in, everything in the first season, Brendan came. He took everything in the first, aye?” Brown said.
“Second season he went a wee bit, no, like Chris Davis and John, then third season he kind of stepped away a wee bit more as well but tactical, Brendan did everything, as in the Friday and stuff like that but he gave a wee bit more leeway to John and Chris and that because they worked with him for two years.”
Brown believes that trust came from Kennedy and Davies understanding exactly what Rodgers wanted from the team.
“It’s like if you continue working with the same person for two years, you get to know what they want and I think Brendan put trust in them to go and develop it, to go and lead it on the pitch.”
Brown’s account paints Kennedy as one of the key figures behind Celtic’s work at Lennoxtown, with responsibilities ranging from recruitment and organisation to tactics and first-team training.
