BY his own admission, Nir Bitton was a stubborn young man not so long ago.

The Israeli had not featured as much for Celtic as he would have liked since joining the club from Ashdod in his homeland in the summer of 2013 but put that down to the personal choices of first Neil Lennon and then Ronny Deila, the two managers he has worked under at Celtic. There was nothing he felt he himself needed to do differently.

"Before I used to think, "Okay, I'm a good player, I don't need to change everything. If the gaffer wants me to play he will, if not I will sit on the bench, I don't care", stuff like that," admitted the 23 year-old. Deila, in particular, however, would not tolerate such an approach. The Norwegian saw a player with enormous potential and felt that Bitton's poor attitude was holding him back. Several frank discussions followed. The midfielder is coy about what exactly was said in the exchanges between manager and player but they clearly had the desired effect.

Bitton, a fringe player for so much of his early time at Celtic, has become a major driving force in a side pushing for a domestic treble. Operating in a deeper lying midfield role alongside captain Scott Brown, his short, crisp passing, and timely interceptions, have allowed the more creative players in the team to flourish. The fact that injury could potentially keep him out of Sunday's League Cup final against Dundee United is now a source of major concern for Celtic. And that is not something that could have been anticipated six months ago.

"I prefer the conversation between me and the gaffer to stay between me and him but I can say that after that I began to understand what he wanted from me, what he expected from me," Bitton revealed. "I tried to change things and I am happy I am showing I deserve to play now. At the beginning of the season there were a couple of things I didn't understand in terms of what he expected from me.

"Sometimes you need a conversation with the gaffer to understand what he wants from you, to understand what he expects from you as a player and a professional. I am happy that after that conversation I got my time to show my abilities and who I am."

Bitton needed guidance from Deila as to just what he should be doing, but the transformation also involved some extensive soul-searching from the player himself. It was not the easiest thing to be told he needed to change his mindset if he wanted to succeed at Celtic but he took the advice on board.

"Of course I had to look at myself," he added. "When you don't play the first thing is, "it's the gaffer". That's what everybody says. But after you go home you think honestly, "okay, what am I doing wrong?"

"At the end of the day the gaffer wants the success of the team and he puts the best players out there to play because he wants to win. I understood that I needed to change myself, that I needed to improve. I am happy I did it.

"I said to myself "if I don't change I will find myself out of this club". I was six or seven games out of the squad and the worst thing for a player is to be not part of the team, it's the best feeling in the world being involved.

"It's not easy when you are not playing so you need to have a good attitude and a strong mentality - you need to show the gaffer you want to change. I'm happy I've done that but the main thing is the success of the team."

Even in the darkest days, there was a determination on Bitton's part to make his stay in Scotland a success. He could easily have returned home and found a new club but that would have been the easy way out.

"As a professional when you don't play you just want success even more," he added. "You work harder to be a better player. The easiest thing would be to not care and just go back to Israel and not want to be here anymore. That's not me. I just want to show everyone I deserve to play."

And now, at the age of 23, Bitton stands on the brink of collecting his first cup medal to add to the league bauble picked up last season. "Every player wants to win a lot of trophies in his career. We will do everything possible to win the cup. Of course it will be difficult like it was last Sunday. Dundee United are a very tough team, a very good team. But we need to just play like the gaffer wants us to play and hopefully everything will be fine."