SCOTT BROWN, the Celtic captain, has admitted the prospect of further memorable European nights and even breaking the record of nine league titles in a row shared with Rangers was the reason why he's never wanted to leave the club.

At 29, the midfielder insisted he felt as strong as he did when as a Hibernian player his performances persuaded Gordon Strachan to break the Scottish transfer record and bring him down the M8 in 2007 for a fee of £4.4million, and that he saw himself staying at Parkhead for many years to come.

Brown has nine winners' medals from his eight seasons as a Celtic player, and with the very real prospect of Celtic dominating Scottish football in the long-term, this is a player who will never grow tired of winning.

Asked whether he fancied a ninth championship in a row at the age of 36, Brown said: "I'd need to get another season after that, eh? I'll need to do a Ryan Giggs.

"I've got five titles now - and counting. I've still got a long way to go. I'm only 29 and I still feel good. I'm enjoying my football so hopefully there's a lot more to come.

"You have to try and push yourself as far as you possibly can. I'm willing to push myself on as long as I can possibly play. I'm enjoying my football and being at the club just now. Everything is going really well for me."

Brown admitted that his love for Celtic runs deep and grew stronger over the years because of those midweek matches under the floodlights, occasions which he and his team-mates are desperate to bring back next season

"Everyone thrives on Champions League nights. It's amazing walking out that tunnel to 60,000 fans and we need to get that back next season," he said.

Brown recovered from an early season injury to enjoy what has arguably been his best season for Celtic. Certainly, his performances have been impressively consistent for both club and country, and his standing among his own support has never been higher.

For a player who has relied so much on his raw energy and ability to cover so much ground since he burst onto the Scottish football scene as a 17-year-old, there is no sign of him slowing down two months before his 30th birthday.

"I can play until I'm 55 - no, seriously, I've got six, seven, eight years left in me. I feel as good as I did at 21 so as long as I feel like this I'll keep playing," said Brown.

"Once Craig Gordon starts sprinting past me then that's when I know that I have to chuck it. If he's making more forward runs than me then I'm done. But it's down to me and how much I want it and right now I want it.

"I don't know what I'd do sitting at home every day. I have so much energy to burn that I love going into training and I enjoy it. I don't see myself anywhere else. The club has been great to me, Peter Lawwell has been great to me and the managers of the past too as well as the current one. It feels like home. It's a place I enjoy coming to and I love playing in front of those fans.

"It's an honour to be captain here and with Scotland at the same time. The fans are great, the gaffer is good with me and the bond we have between players and manager is terrific."

Kris Commons ruffled some feathers earlier this week when he claimed the current Celtic team was better than the one which famously beat Barcelona under Neil Lennon. Celtic will spend in the summer, most probably on a centre-forward, but the captain believes the squad is strong enough to take on Europe's best as they are.

"We aren't missing anything. We are scoring goals, we are working hard. The way the gaffer has us, the team and squad are set up perfectly now," said Brown.

"To be fair, there were great players in that (Lennon's) team and we have great players now. It's always easy to say it's definitely a better squad but we need to prove it now. We need to go into the Champions League and show that we are just as good as we were two or three seasons ago."