THE talent was always there even if the temperament was not.

Scott Brown already looked like a man when he got into the Hibernian team at only 17 but spoke and acted like a daft wee boy, which is what he was, on and off the pitch.

On his debut, Brown played a part in all three of Hibs’ goals at Aberdeen on May 3, 2003. He then played the final few games of that season and scored two goals of his own. It was a remarkable start. He really looked the part.

But in those early days, this teenager from Fife with the scary stare had way too much to say for himself, was not afraid to go in hard on even the most famous opponent and if a scuffle broke out, Broony was right in the middle. Not as a peacemaker.

There was an explanation behind all of this. Brown had too much energy, topped up by a ridiculous amount of E numbers.

“I don't know if changing my style would change me as a player but I'm not planning to try it," he said during an interview in 2004 I happened to sit in on when he was with the Scotland Under-21 team.

“I admit I am hyperactive all the time and I'm a nightmare if I take chocolate or fizzy drinks. I try to keep away from them due to their sugar content because, if I drink that stuff, I just go off on one and start running about.

"It's not as though I've been to the doctor about it - I try to stay away from them - but I am definitely better off drinking water."

Brown was not disciplined then. He liked a can of cola, he loved a night out. He could be, as stated by the man himself, a nightmare to be around.

His pal and team-mate at Hibs Kevin Thomson once told me that the only time in his career that he really drank was his year of sharing a flat with Broony.

“It would be the morning after a night out, all I wanted to do was pull the covers over my head, and Scotty would be banging about the flat, playing music and doing his ironing first thing. He never slept.”

So much energy, so much daftness. So much energy wasted.

Before he joined up with the Scotland team that very week, Brown had been fortunate not to be sent off for a (almost literally) flying tackle on Steven Pressley during the Edinburgh derby. He wasn’t done yet. Alan Maybury punched Brown in the tunnel after the match in retaliation to something which was said.

The raw kid did not take a single step back.

"I want to have a chat with him," so said Rainer Bonhof who managed the under-21 team at that time. "We allowed him to calm down on Sunday evening but he needs to control himself. He is wasting too much energy during games arguing with officials and opponents.

"Scott needs to learn from his mistakes but I was the same in my youth. Of course, I grew up in the late Sixties and everyone in the world was protesting about something in those days."

I was one of a handful of then younger journalists who followed Bonhof’s team then. The German, a World Cup winner, was as excited about the dynamo midfielder from Leith as he was worried that this kid would become yet another wasted Scottish talent.

I’ll admit that I didn’t hold out much hope for Brown, who was always likeable and ever-so-slightly bonkers. Sure, he could play football but this fire would burn out soon enough.

How wrong can one man be!

Billy McNeill stands alone as the greatest Celtic captain. For me, I would have Danny McGrain next and then Brown.

Brown is a better player and a better captain then Neil Lennon, Paul Lambert, Jackie McNamara, and Tom Boyd. Paul McStay was superior footballer but if the two were about at the same time, it’s Brown who would walk out the tunnel first.

His new two-year deal, one would imagine, will put him in the top ten all-time appearances list. Brown played his 506th Celtic game on Wednesday night. Jimmy Johnstone no less is tenth on the all-time list. His record of 529 games will surely be passed.

Brown has 17 winners’ medals and counting. Bobby Lennox leads the way with 25, then it’s McNeill on 23 with Johnston’s tally of 19, which has him third on that list, a number which could be equalled this season.

No other Scot has played more games in what traditionalist still call the European Cup. Kenny Dalglish is next.

These numbers are mind-boggling. They are testament to a footballer who has occasionally strayed from the path – perfection is boring – but whose love of the game, and his love of Celtic, has seen him reach levels none of us who were there at the start believed him to be capable of.

Brown is a Celtic icon. That’s one step up from legend. It could be argued that nobody – including Lennox, Dalglish, and Larsson – has been better in Old Firm games in the famous green and white.

Those who said he was finished after one bad afternoon at Ibrox weren’t watching properly. Yes, Brown was poor, but a major reason for that he was doing the work of two men given than the much younger Olivier Ntcham was an empty shirt.

He is a serious footballer with a restless soul which has always been looking for fun.

When a television film crew visited Hampden, over ten years ago now, to watch the Scotland team try the crossbar challenged, selected players ran over to the camera, said their name and position, before trying to hit the woodwork from the centre circle.

“Remember its Scott Brown,” shouted Ally McCoist when it was the turn of the squad’s young daft lad. It got a big laugh.

He still acts as if he’s not quite the full shilling. His press conferences tend to start with something along the lines of “I take I you’re looking for the usual s****” and despite his age, this man has more energy than a megaton bomb. And that’s without a diet of sweeties.

As Brown would say: “No bad for an idiot, eh.” He’s anything but that. This is a Celtic great who isn’t quite finished yet. He will get really good once he calms down.