They say it takes a village to raise a child, and a similar concept can be applied to aspiring managers. With the expertise that Scott Brown is able to tap into, he should have a fair chance of becoming a successful one.
The Ayr United manager has quite the contacts book from his previous life as Celtic captain, and he has no qualms about using it. Gordon Strachan and Neil Lennon are just two of the men he will go to on a regular basis to bounce ideas off, as well as the man who will occupy the opposition dugout at Somerset Park this evening.
Brown admits it will be a strange sensation to look across and see Brendan Rodgers just down the touchline, with the Celtic manager bringing a side to Ayr for a friendly to mark the opening of their £2m North Stand.
It is a big night for the Honest Men, and for Brown, who is hoping that the brains trust he has been picking away at will help propel his club towards the Premiership.
Rodgers has been an integral part of that, with the pair meeting up on holiday in the close season to talk shop over a long meal or two, and Brown had no hesitation in expressing his gratitude to his former gaffer when he was asked if he has been pestering him for advice.
“All the time,” Brown said.
“I have no shame over that whatsoever. I want to try to take as much information as I possibly can.
“When he came to Celtic, I learned a lot about myself as a player and when I went into management I took a lot from him, from Neil Lennon, from Gordon Strachan as well. They are three managers I am really close to still and I speak to them all the time.
“I think it’s good to have those older, experienced managers you can phone up to for a rant or for a little bit of understanding.
“[Brendan] is not a manager who says, ‘call me’ then turns away. He has loads of time for me and vice versa.
“I saw him on holiday in Spain and ended up spending a lot of time with him. It’s good to pick his brains now and then about his understanding of his club and also his understanding of what we’re about as well.
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“I talk to him about everything. It’s just about understanding the game as much as I possibly can.”
Brown knows that his association to Celtic will follow him around, perhaps forevermore. He wouldn’t have it any other way, and is immensely grateful for all the club has given him, and continues to.
He does though want to be known for being a manager in his own right, and perhaps plant something of a flag this evening to put the rest of the The Championship on notice ahead of the new season.
“I need to get away from the whole ex-Celtic captain [thing],” he said.
“I've not been there for a long time now. I think it's over three years now.
“That's why I went down the road [to Fleetwood], to get away from the whole Celtic thing. I went down to learn and make mistakes and also enjoy it.
“We finished 13th in League One with probably one of the worst budgets. We can push teams and we believe we can make teams better and we've got to make sure we make them better than we did last season.
“Me, I am the Ayr manager and I want to play the style and a way myself and Steven (Whittaker) believe we want to play. Hopefully you get to see that - if we get a touch of the ball against Celtic! It'd be lovely.
“But for us it's to push up the league. We can't be dealing with fighting a relegation zone or being part of that relegation zone. Yes, it is going to be a lot tighter this season. I don't see there being a clear out and out team that's going to run away with the league.
“I might be 100 percent wrong but at the other end as well, there's not going to be a clear relegation battle. So, it might be very tight. It makes it entertaining, the Championship, but we have to have belief and strength for the way we want to play and continue to do that.”
The period at Fleetwood that Brown references was memorable for many good reasons, but also for some eye-opening experiences.
“You don't expect the owner to go to jail for 13 years on your first job,” he said, referencing the fraud conviction of former Fleetwood owner Andy Pilley. With David Smith at Ayr United, he feel he is dealing with a safer pair of hands.
“There's one good thing about this owner, he's not going to jail for 13 years!” he laughed.
“I think the second managerial job you go into is very important because you learn a lot from the mistakes and what you did in the first one and you have that little bit more background search. You read more about the club and see what they are and see where they are.
“We went into Fleetwood and had fantastic facilities. They had everything you wanted as a League One club, but behind the scenes it was a wee bit crazy, which we were okay with because we quite enjoyed that.
“Seeing the chairman going, right, we're going to sign him. I'm like, ‘f*****g, here we go, this is brilliant’. Then the second season it's like ‘you've got no money to sign him’ and you’re like ‘oh no’.
“That's ups and downs and there's always going to be roller coasters. Football management, you've got to deal with it.
“We tried to deal with it as well as we possibly could and then we got the opportunity here and work with good people, good players as well. But also, I think when you look at everybody, everybody helps each other.
“We have to make sure we all pull together.”
