SCOTT Brown last night pledged his long-term future to both his club and country - by revealing he will sign a contract extension with Celtic and is now available for selection by Scotland indefinitely.
Brown’s current deal with the Parkhead club, who he joined from Hibernian in a £4.4 million transfer back in 2007, expires at the end of the 2017/18 campaign.
But Brendan Rodgers, who has formed a strong bond with his captain since being appointed manager last summer, is keen for him to remain beyond that and has held talks with the player.
Read more: Celtic captain Scott Brown: No-one likes me but I don't care
The 32-year-old, who arrived in the Czech Republic yesterday afternoon with the rest of the Celtic squad ahead of their pre-season friendly with Slavia Prague here this evening, confirmed he would stay on.
However, the midfielder, who has been rewarded for his service to the club with a testimonial, will put further discussions about his future on hold until after the Scottish champions have completed their Champions League qualifying campaign.
“I’d love to stay,” he said. “Celtic know I’m not going to go nowhere. I would like to finish my career here, whether it is two, three or four years down the line. Playing in front of 60,000 at Celtic Park is the best feeling I’ve ever had.
“It is a good thing that the gaffer and I have got that relationship. We sat down and spoke. He asked me and I said I would be delighted to do it again. He said: ‘Well, we’ll sort something out’.
“But we will wait until we get through the qualifiers. We don’t want that situation rumbling on over the next couple of weeks. We’ve got to focus on getting to the Champions League.”
Meanwhile, Brown, who came out of international retirement last season to play for Scotland in their Russia 2018 qualifier against England at Wembley in November, has stated he now plans to play on for his country for the foreseeable future.
Read more: Celtic captain Scott Brown: No-one likes me but I don't care
The player decided not to represent his country in August last year after being dogged by niggling injuries and disappointing form. However, a complete break from the game last summer led to a dramatic improvement in his fitness and performances and he reversed his decision just two months later.
Initially, he made himself available on a game-by-game basis. But after doing well in Group F matches against Slovenia in March and England again last month he now intends to keep turning out for the national team as long as he is selected.
Asked what he was going to do with Scotland, he said: “Keep playing. I’m enjoying it. As long as I’m fit I’ll be fine. I spoke to Gordon (Scotland manager Strachan) and he said it was up to me. He said whatever my decision was, he’d back me. I want to maintain being in the squad and being in that environment.
“The gaffer (Rodgers) is brand new as well. He says it’s my decision. Whether I go on for this campaign or the next campaign, it’s a question of how long my legs can go on doing it for."
“I missed it. I went along to the Lithuania game and I wanted to be a part of the squad and a part of the team. I wanted to go out there and play for the jersey. But at the time I’d thought I was struggling to keep up with the rest. I needed that time off.
“I maybe jumped in a wee bit too early in saying I was retiring. But I’d done what was best for me. Now, for me to have come back and worked on my fitness, I’m probably back stronger than I’ve ever been.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here