THE lowest average yearly wage in the English Premier League last season was a pitiful £998,632, a sum which the poor creatures at Crystal Palace had to get by on.

This season it is estimated that Aston Villa, bottom of the league and utterly hopeless, pay their first team squad members on average £35,000 per week.

And people wonder why professional footballers from the great to the bang average want to try their hand in that environment.

Nir Bitton could easily be one of them. He is more than good enough to cut it and while the ink on his new five-year deal is not yet dry, the Israeli midfielder would comfortably double his money by signing for Stoke – which is perhaps the most depressing sentence ever written.

However, the Celtic man is not interested in such riches, at least not yet, as there are more important things to concentrate on. It’s why he intends to stay in Scottish football and at Celtic Park for a few more years to come.

“For a player, sometimes to win trophies and play for championships and a Champions League team is better than money,” said Bitton. “At the end of the day you finish your career and look at your past and think, okay, I have done that and that.

"To win trophies with Celtic and play in the Champions League with Celtic as a club for me, right now, is the most important thing.

"Money is important in life. But not right now. I am still young. I’m 24 years old and have plenty of years in front of me. Everything happens at the right time. The right thing now is to play for Celtic.”

So when is he signing for Southampton then? That's what everyone seems to do.

“I have just signed for five years,” Bitton said with a chuckle. “I don’t think about leaving. If I wanted to leave I would not have signed a new contract. I want my future to be at Celtic. I appreciated that they offered me a five-year contract. It meant a lot to me and it means a lot to me to play for this club.

“In life, everything comes at the right time. Maybe there will be a right time to play at a higher level, not a bigger club because there is none bigger than Celtic, but of course everyone dreams about playing with the best players in the world.

“Right now, all I want to do is play for Celtic.”

This is exactly what Celtic fans want to hear. They do understand why players leave for down south, but when their own club can’t compete with Norwich City for Gary Hooper, currently on loan in the Championship with Sheffield Wednesday, it is hard not to feel a bit gloomy.

Bitton, Celtic’s best player this calendar year, is not the type to chase the cash at a club which cannot give him what Celtic can. It was refreshing to hear.

“Sometimes it’s better to play in the Champions League or Europa League instead of, I don’t know, the bottom of the English Premier League or something,” he said.

“You need to think about everything. Sometimes players choose to go after the money. But the money is not the most important thing in life.

"Like I say, there are a lot of things in life that affect you. The reason I signed a new contract is that my wife Bar is happy here. A happy wife makes my life easier. If we are happy here why would we change?”

Good point.

Bitton deserves great credit for making a home in a country so different to his own. It took time for him to settle but now he loves his life apart from one thing.

“The weather is… I don’t know why I signed a new contract,” he said with a smile. “It is totally different. Scotland, I think, is a beautiful country with amazing people who have welcomed me. I really appreciate to come as a foreigner and to get this kind of thing makes me feel at home. I just want it to continue."

So good has he been that Deila even compared him to one of the finest Barcelona players of all time. It’s a comparison that does not sit well with the modest Bitton.

“Sergio Busquets is up here (raises hand) and I’m down here (lowers hand to the floor),” said Bitton who might not be up there with the Spanish superstar but is at least on the right road.

“The gaffer is one of the reasons I signed for Celtic, I really enjoy playing under him. We have a good relationship.

“It’s not just about him, it’s about all the coaching staff; John Collins, John Kennedy, they always try to improve us and as a young player it’s very important for you to get these kind of things to try to improve yourself every day.

“Like I say if the right time will be in three, four or five years to go but right now I don’t think about it as the most important thing for me is to have success with Celtic, to build myself here and to make the fans proud.”