Grant Brebner

August 7, 2013
Photo by camw

Photo by camw

Name: Grant Ian Brebner

DOB: 06/12/77

POB: Edinburgh

Position: Centre midfield

Clubs: Manchester United, Cambridge United, Hibs, Reading, Stockport, Dundee United, Melbourne Victory

International caps: 17 (under-21) 

Grant Brebner never quite reached the
heights expected of him even if he did graft himself a respectable career
in Scotland and Australia. It was not merely that he was once on the books
of Manchester United. At the age of 20 and 21 he excelled in the
midfield position and was one of the country’s most exciting
prospects. In the end he never received a full international call-up. Off field problems
with gambling may have been an issue. Even if it is not an affliction
which perceptively hinders performance on the park, there were
question marks surrounding his 2004 move to Dundee United that
fuelled rumours about gambling debts.

For a long time Hibs were Brebner’s
jilted lover. The Hutchison Vale prodigy spurned the advances of his
boyhood heroes to sign for Manchester United as a 16-year old,
returning four years later on a loan deal agreed between new Hibs
boss Alex McLeish and Alex Ferguson that would see the centre
midfielder finish the 1997/98 season in attempt to keep Hibs in
the Premier League.

He made his début in a 1-0 defeat to
Celtic, drawing specific praise from members of the media for his
gutsy performance against that season’s eventual champions. He was
equally impressive a couple of months later alongside Pat McGinley when the pair completely dominated the centre-midfield Hearts’ partnership of
Stefano Salvatori and Steve Fulton to help Hibs win the Edinburgh derby and end of their rivals title hopes.

However he was back down to earth with a thud soon
after, scoring an own goal that resulted in a 1-1 draw
away to Dunfermline in a match that the club had to win to avoid
relegation. In the end their revival wasn’t enough and they went down
on the final day of the season after a 2-1 home defeat to Dundee
United. A devastated Brebner cried at the full time whistle.

Surprisingly, he then rejected the
chance to sign permanently for the club and instead went to Reading.
The Royals, managed by Tommy Burns, had just been relegated to the
third tier of English football. They were a big club, bigger than
Dundee United or Kilmarnock, who were also interested, and Brebner
was so impressed with their ambitions that he spurned the chance to
remain in the top flight or fight for a place at Manchester United to
sign for them.

His time at Reading was proficient
enough. He scored an impressive 12 goals in 46 games from the centre
of the park. It wasn’t a case of the player not impressing the club,
it was the club not impressing the player. He was not satisfied with
the quality of the side he expected to make an immediate return to
the First Division, which instead floundered in mediocrity in the
third tier.

Finally Hibs and Brebner made their
love affair official. The player arrived for £400,000 and signed a
five year contract with the club. The club were delighted to have finally
tied down their man even if the deal cost them £300,000 more than it
would have the previous summer. He put the error in judgement down to
immaturity and his familiarity with the English set-up and set to
justifying the huge transfer fee and contract.

He soon found his place in the Hibs
squad vastly different to the one he had left a year earlier –
among his new team-mates were Frank Sauzee and Russell Latapy –
helping the club comfortably stay in the division while defeating
rivals Hearts 3-0 in the Millennium Derby.

First choice in his return season, he
soon found himself on the bench at the start of the new campaign.
What made matters worse was that Hibs kept winning. Attempting to
find first team football he agreed to a loan deal with Stockport
County, only to suffer injury shortly after arriving and cut the spell short in January, having featured in only three games. Back
at Easter Road he knuckled down and finally managed to worm his way
back into the starting line-up as the season drew to a close. Even making it into the 2001 Scottish Cup Final team, even if he was
subbed after 61 minutes in a 3-0 Celtic win.

For the next three seasons he would
play regularly when fit and experience many lows as highs in a
rollercoaster few years for the club. Frank Sauzee was promoted to
the manager’s job when Alex McLeish left for Rangers and Brebner was
a part of the struggling side which embarrassingly lost to Ayr United
in the semi-final of the League Cup. The next year he scored what
should have been an injury time clincher in the Edinburgh derby, only
to witness Graham Weir netting two injury times goals to steal a
point for Hearts.

Before the next campaign he rejected
the chance to sign contract extension. Stating that too many players
were leaving the club and they were showing a lack of ambition. He
would soon be proved wrong. The club were mainly cutting their cloth
and allowing the modern day golden generation of Hibs youngsters to
come through. The 2-1 quarter-final win over Celtic, in which
Brebner scored the first goal, was one of their more noted results.

Unfortunately for the midfielder he
broke his arm in six places during a Scottish Cup exit to Rangers.
The severity of the injury put him out of action for four months. It
meant he missed the League Cup semi-final victory over the Ibrox club and, more
crucially, couldn’t feature in the shock 2-0 defeat at the hands of
Livingston in the final. He was back playing league games in May and
his return was heralded by the announcement of a new three year deal
with the club. Incredibly, he was gone by the end of August

It remains one of the more curious
transfer deals since the beginning of the SPL era. There was a new manager in place, Tony Mowbray, and it is not uncommon for an incoming boss to stamp his mark on the team and sell previously valued first team players. However, he was the reigning Fans Player of the Year, captain of the side and had been signalled out for
praise by Mowbray when he arrived. But still the deal was done, he
was a Dundee United player; making his debut in a 2-1 win over
Inverness CT in a rare win that season for the Tannadice club under
Ian McCall.

It was shortly into his United career
that Brebner first admitted his addiction to gambling. This led to
many fans putting two and two together and guessing that the surprise
sale from Easter Road had been a favour by the club to earn the player a
signing on fee to pay off his debts. This rumours have never been
confirmed and the midfielder stresses his Edinburgh exit was only
football related, but even nine years after they event they linger in
the air.

If it was purely football related then some revenge was exacted when he helped his new colleagues to defeat Hibs in
the 2006 Scottish Cup semi-finals. Consistent first team football followed over the next two seasons, before being informed by new manager Craig Brewster that
there would be no future for him beyond the 2005/06 campaign. The
club were still under performing and paying high wages to do
so. Brebner and a few other first team players were shipped out as a
result. A severance package was agreed in the summer of 2008.

He travelled across to Australia to
make a fresh start and initially signed a one year deal with
Melbourne Victory. He ended up staying for six; helping them to win
the A League title in 2007 and 2009. The very next year his gambling
problems resurfaced. Brebner and two other A League players were
fined for gambling offences. Missing one of his side’s matches
through injury a bored Brebner suffered a relapse, betting just over
a £1 on his side not to win the game. The small taste of the action led to more
serious bets with him losing 500 Australian dollars on another game.

He retired from playing in 2012.

Where are they now? Brebner moved into management immediately after leaving Melbourne. First he took control of the Moreland Zebras before moving onto Richmond SC this year. 

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