Celtic captain Scott Brown has defended his decision to back Aleksandar Tonev in the past as he vowed to win over the Aberdeen fans.
The midfielder has come under fire from sections of the Dons support after standing by his old Celtic team-mate during a racism row with Shay Logan in 2014.
But he insists he had to stand by his team-mate after he promised him he never said anything racist to Logan but admitted it was a very difficult situation.
Logan is set to leave Pittodrie at the end of the season after a loan spell at Hearts to end the current campaign but Brown insists he has huge respect for his old foe.
The Aberdeen defender even dressed up as Brown during his stag doo and the two have clashed regularly on the pitch.
But Brown said: “It doesn’t matter where you go, you always need to win over the fans. I did that at Hibs and Celtic. Whenever I cross that white line I always give 110 per cent.
“I want to win games of football and I enjoy the challenge. I’m sure there’s still a few Hibs and Celtic fans who dont’ appreciate the way I play or the way I go about my business.
“But a long as I work hard and do my talking on the park, I don’t need to worry about the rest.
“It’s a very hard thing, because you have one player saying he got racially abused, and then you’ve got a teammate that says he didn’t say it.
“At that time, I stuck up for my teammate because he said and he swore down to me that I didn’t do it, so you’ve got to take his stance on that.
“To this day, I still don’t know whether he said it or not. It was one person’s word against the other.
“But I’ve got huge respect for Shay. He’s been a fantastic player for Aberdeen over the years, he’s worked extremely hard.
“We’ve had a lot of battles over the course of our careers, and it’s been enjoyable to be fair. I’m sure he’d say the exact same.
“It’s hard because we’ve had players in the past like Scott Sinclair, we’ve had Moussa Dembele and we’ve had Odsonne Edouard getting racially abused, and that should never happen in football no matter who you play for.
“You can’t be doing that through Instagram or Twitter or anything like that.
“This club has been fantastic, we work very closely with Show Racism the Red Card and we all firmly believe in that.
“It doesn’t matter where you come from, as soon as you walk in the door you are accepted and you are part of us, Celtic Football Club, and Aberdeen will be as well. They will be open to every single player.
“It doesn’t matter about your religion, the colour of your skin, or where you come from. It’s about being a teammate and doing the best for your teammates.”
