Celtic hero Scott Brown says he's 'got a lot of love for Rangers' as he's put on the spot over Clement comments

SCOTT BROWN was a consistent thorn in the flesh of countless Rangers players and managers during his time as a Celtic nine-in-a-row legend.

So it's instructive to see him spending the final minutes as they count down to Ayr United's big Scottish Cup clash against the Ibrox men saying 'he's got a lot of love for the club'.

The backdrop to the comments were words from Ibrox boss Philippe Clement that his side were about to come up against a manager in Brown who Clement claims "doesn't like Rangers very much".

But the Celtic talisman quipped in his pre-match press conference today that the notion was wide of the mark.

He said: “I’ve got a lot of love for Rangers.

".... but as I say it was all in the past. We are the underdogs - we know that.

"But there have also been a lot of cup shocks and I have been part of them."

Brown played for Rangers Boys Club as a kid and could have chosen to return there when he and best pal Kevin Thomson left Hibs but chose Celtic instead.

The rest is history but another member of that team, Steven Whittaker, went on to be a Gers star and he now has him as his assistant boss at Somerset Park.

Speaking to the Ayrshire Post, Brown said: "It's another game to me. We'll prepare over the coming days and make sure we are ready.

"The lads have been brilliant since we've come in and are responding to what we want.

"I actually thought we played very well against Dundee United on Saturday and if we take one of our chances at 1-0 up it probably ends differently.

"But you can see the lads are taking things on in the way we want to press high and play with a tempo. We just need to be a bit more ruthless."