Former Hibs duo's Premiership return chance unveiled as no regrets held after exit from Scottish club
The former Hibs pair also featured at Celtic and Rangers, now looking for their next job in football
Scott Brown and Steven Whittaker hold no regrets over their Ayr United stint, as the former Hibs duo revealed why a return to the Premiership was passed up.
The pair came through the ranks together at Hibs, before featuring for Celtic and Rangers respectively, on top of Scotland national team duty. Brown has now managed Fleetwood Town and Ayr United with Whittaker as his number two, but amid poor form, they left the latter last month.
Ayr had been to the Premiership play-offs under the ex-Hibs men but form tailed off in the Championship this season. During their time at Somerset Park, Brown was strongly linked to the St Johnstone job, eventually staying put last season as the Perthshire Saints were relegated from the Premiership. While not naming the interested club, Brown holds no regrets over how his latest managerial stint panned out. Former Hibs midfielder John Rankin has come in at Ayr until the end of this season.
Scott Brown on time at Ayr United
Brown told the Warm Up: “To be fair, we started off not too bad. In the play-offs until the last eight games that we were there, the amount of injuries that we got was scary, at that point in time. We didn't have the strength and depth in the squad and it affected all our forward players. They're starting to come back now and you can see they'll be fine.
“They'll get the players back and they'll have a good enough squad to make sure they do that. It was kind of easy enough for us to just part company. The club were really good with us. We've got no regrets whatsoever. We enjoyed our time down there. It was some drive, I'm not going to lie, Jesus!
“I enjoyed the day-to-day routine, I enjoyed the graft and going down together. It was great because we were taking turns and we are close anyway, as everybody knows. It was good for us to be working together. The lads were brilliant, they really were. Especially that first season, finishing third and we pushed Falkirk and Livingston quite far at that point in time. Yet again, we probably just didn't have the strength and depth in the squad.
Could Scott Brown have returned to the Premiership?
“We had opportunities to go elsewhere. Then you stay and you try and be loyal at the time. Maybe we should have jumped ship at that point in time. I could have went to the Premiership. I 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. Then you're going back into the same league and for the sake of two or three months, having that Premiership experience, you would maybe regret it overall. I thought what we'd done and where we were sitting at the time, we had a good opportunity to maybe go and kick on in the play-offs.”
Whittaker meanwhile insists the pair are looking at a return to football. The former Rangers and Hibs man is keen to see the next challenge they take on go up in size amid a desire to continue learning.
He said: “We're always looking to get back in. We want to try and progress. That’s us had two jobs now, so you're constantly learning. We're still a young management team. We want to go on to bigger things and better things. We'll look to see what the next opportunity may be. It's obviously towards the end of the season, so we'll sit and reflect and chat around things over the summer, and see what opportunities come our way.”
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