The following article appeared in the Daily Record the day that Jock Brown was appointed General Manager. Whether it was an accurate summation of the feelings of the majority of Celtic supporters was and is debatable. The Daily Record, constantly known for it's stirrings, yet again showed that all it really was interested in was sales – and the guaranteed way to get the figures up was to stick a big fat headline at the top and play on the Celtic – Rangers natural antagonism.
What it did immediately do, though, was provide a ready-made nickname that would crop up again and again throughout his tenuere as General Manager at the club.
JOKE BROWN
Daily Record 23/06/1997
By DAVID McCARTHY
Seething Celtic supporters are threatening to hand back season tickets to protest at the appointment of TV pundit Jock Brown as general manager.
They claim that Brown, who says he supports Hamilton Accies, is actually a RANGERS fan.
And they don't want the 51-year-old brother of Scotland coach Craig Brown in the hotseat.
Celtic chief Fergus McCann will confirm leading lawyer and BBC football commentator Brown as his top man this morning. But he can expect opposition from Celtic's rank and file support, who wanted a top football figure in the position.
Hoops fans bombarded the Daily Record with complaints about the appointment – and Celtic Supporters Association HQ in Glasgow's London Road was inundated with protests.
Supporters Association general secretary Gerry Madden said: "I had calls from 35 representatives of our branch members by 5pm – not one of them supported the decision to appoint Jock Brown.
"Association president Francie Hinton told me the phone has never stopped ringing at our HQ and again the feeling is unanimous.
"There are two major problems here. One is that Jock Brown has no experience of running a football club. The second – and it's the one that has been annoying most people – is that he's seen as a Rangers man.
"We all think he is Rangers minded and that's getting up the noses of our members.
"But as one of them said, he'll be among friends because there seem to be plenty of Rangers- minded people in positions of power at Celtic these days.
"The association is deeply unhappy at the appointment and some of our members have said that they will hand back season tickets.
"Others are asking us to help them get their money back because they feel they've been conned.
"The association is asking them not to take that course of action – no man is bigger than the club and we want fans to keep supporting Celtic."
Robert Finnigan, a member of the Supporters Association executive committee, said: "This appointment is a joke – a bad joke. I can't believe Jock Brown is going to be our general manager.
"There are a lot of angry Celtic supporters who have bought season tickets and feel they've been let down by Fergus McCann."
Brown was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Club spokesman Peter McLean said: "The club cannot comment on reaction to an appointment that has not been confirmed."