Shay Logan: Brown signing is nothing to do with my Dons exit

Shay Logan has insisted his exit from Aberdeen has nothing to do with Scott Brown agreeing a summer move to Pittodrie to become player-coach.

Logan, whose Aberdeen contract expires at the end of the season, has made a short-term loan switch to Hearts.

Some had questioned if it was connected to the Brown signing, with the Celtic captain being a vocal supporter of his then team-mate Aleksandar Tonev when he was banned for racially abusing Logan back in 2014.

The defender said there was no ongoing issue over their racism row, and put any other conflict between the pair on the pitch as being down to competitive natures.

“When it comes to that incident, on the pitch you have stuff with all sorts of players,” he said. “It’s not that we didn’t get on. He played for Celtic, I played for Aberdeen and there was rivalry on the pitch because we both wanted to win.

“I’ve had fights like that with people on the pitch for the last 12 years. I’ve no personal vendetta against Scott Brown and I don’t think he has one against me.

“Him coming to Aberdeen has nothing at all to do with me. My contract’s up [before he arrives].

“Am I his mate? No. Do I know him? No. Do I hear he’s a good guy? Yeah.

“But I only judge people on how I come across them. We’ve had a little argy-bargy on the pitch but for me it stays on the pitch. Anything else to do with other stuff, like him backing Tonev… I’ve left all that in the past and it doesn’t bother me now. It’s so far gone, I only ever think about it when someone else brings it up.

“It has nothing to do with me leaving Aberdeen.”

Logan’s experience has been discussed again after the allegations Slavia Prague’s Ondrej Kudela racially abused Rangers midfielder Glen Kamara during a Europa League match last month.

The full-back said there was no excuse for racism and, after the incident sparked a wave of online abuse towards Rangers players, said individuals had to be held accountable for their actions and couldn’t be excused with claims of different cultural attitudes or tolerances.

Logan said: “When things like that happen, and people start bringing up stuff that happened to me, I’ll say what I said then: It should never happen on a football pitch, whether it’s 2015, 2009, it definitely shouldn’t be happening in 2021.

“Racism is just a person’s choice. You can come from an area or a country where it might be more accepted but for me, the guy who abused Glen Kamara is at an age where he understands right and wrong. He’s trying to get a reaction out of somebody and he’s saying the worst thing possible. You can say a lot of things, swear at somebody but to bring a person’s colour into it shows what kind of person they are.

“I think racism is down to that individual and it’s on him. It’s a person’s choice to be racist and the person who said that to Glen, I hope he gets everything that’s coming to him.

“It shouldn’t be happening in 2021.”