STUART ARMSTRONG is set to become the latest Celtic player to be offered a new long-term deal at the club.
Brendan Rodgers is keen to show how much he thinks of the 24-year-old midfielder who has been a revelation for the champions over the past three months alongside Scott Brown at the heart of the team.
Celtic will soon sit down with Armstrong, who moved to Glasgow from Dundee United two years ago this month, and it is expected he will agree to extend his stay at the club.
Talks have also taken place with Mikael Lustig, Craig Gordon will do the same over the coming months, while James Forrest signed a new contract earlier in the season.
Rodgers wants to keep the core of his unbeaten side and Armstrong is very much part of his long-term plans. The Celtic manager believes the Highlander is good enough to play in the English Premier League but does not want to cash-in any time soon on Scottish football’s most improved player.
Armstrong has been a revelation for Celtic this season, in particular the last few months when he has scored six goals in his last 12 games and set-up the winner for Scott Sinclair at Ibrox on Hogmanay. He scored on his Celtic debut against Partick Thistle in February 2014, as did Gary Mackay-Steven who moved from Tannadice at the same time, and also netted against Inter Milan in the Europa League, his first experience of European football.
But despite starting the last campaign in good form, injuries and then Ronny Deila’s insistence of playing him wide, Armstrong struggled with confidence and looked the shadow of the player he became at Dundee United.
However, Rodgers - who told Armstrong in the summer that he rated him as a central midfielder and he has been rewarded with a string of fine performances - has transformed him and a Scotland call-up is surely going to happen again - he never been capped - when Gordon Strachan announces his next squad.
Meanwhile Paul Hartley, the Dundee manager, backed Scott Brown to prolong his return to the Scotland international fold until the end of the current World Cup qualifying campaign at least and feels his old gaffer Gordon Strachan could do worse than import Celtic's current central midfield pairing of Brown and Armstrong for the clash with Slovenia in March. Brown, who rushed out of international retirement for the 3-0 defeat to England at Wembley in November, has refused to confirm that he will stay on, but Hartley hopes he is back for good as Gordon Strachan's side chase second spot in the race to reach Russia in the summer of 2018.
"He is having a brilliant season and I would like to see him stay on for the remainder of the campaign," said Hartley, speaking courtesy of national team sponsors William Hill. "Other people will maybe have a different view on it but I think it is important that we get as many good players on the park as possible against Slovenia. I think Gordon would want him to stay on and I think he will stay on for the remainder of the campaign. I think it is important because we can still finish second, it is still a possibility.
"They [Brown and Armstrong] have a good partnership, a good understanding," he added. "We want to get all our good players who are on form on the pitch against Slovenia and hopefully can continue that form till March. The manager picks the best squad available to him but if Stuart continues as he is, he'll be in the plans, the same as [Barrie] McKay at Rangers who's having a good season too. That energy and drive is what they'll bring to a squad."
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