JUST a few days after being announced as the Scottish PFA's Player of the Year, Celtic's Stefan Johansen believes he has answered the critics who questioned his attitude as a youngster.

The 24-year-old has been a revelation for the Scottish Premiership champions this season. As well as scoring 12 goals from his advanced position in central midfield, Johansen has gone on to play nearly 60 matches for the club across five competitions.

It is an incredible amount of game time for a player who was once criticised by former coach Kare Ingebrigsten, now Rosenborg's manager, for being lazy and unfit when he first emerged at Bodo Glimt as a teenager. It is an accusation which certainly cannot be levelled at the Norwegian midfielder now.

Johansen did not go as far as to single out anyone from his past who doubted his application in the game, but he did say: "It was a couple of them but there's no point in me sitting here and saying the names now. They know what they were thinking. I don't care about that. I knew in the end if I worked hard I would do well in football. They know it by themselves.

"Some people talked about my attitude, that I needed to change it. Some people like to think they know more than they do. I'm just happy that I'm now here at Celtic and doing well. The people who said that, they will know it for themselves."

Johansen is honest in his view that there was a turning point in his career, and he is equally candid about highlighting the man behind his revival.

Feeling unmotivated at Bodo, a call from Ronny Deila back in 2010, who was manager of Stromsgodset back at the time, was enough to rekindle Johansen's love affair with the game which burns even brighter under his fellow countryman now at Parkhead.

"I have to be honest, though, my attitude has changed a little bit," said Johansen. "I have always had a talent for football. But at the end of my time at Bodo-Glimt, sometimes I was played as a winger and I spoke up and said it wasn't my position.

"I got some chances but in the end my contract ran out there and I didn't care too much. In the last six months or year there, I kind of had a bad attitude.

"But when I spoke to Ronny and he wanted me at Stromsgodset, I just felt like I had a new energy. He took me there and believed in where I felt I should play. He believed in me as a better footballer and allowed me to show my skills.

"I worked really hard. If I get the chance, I will always work hard. But when you are young and you feel something is unfair, you don't think too much about the consequences. I always believed I could be a good footballer."

While willing to look back into answering questions from his distant past, Johansen is keen to reflect on the last season which has offered up another two trophies for the Celtic midfielder.

Adding another title and a League Cup win to his honours list is a source of great satisfaction for him. And while achieving a domestic treble s something that eluded the Glasgow club this season, Johansen remains unshaken in his belief that he and his team-mates can be proud of their accomplishments.

"I would say it was a very successful season for us," he said. "I don't think people realise how difficult it is to win a treble - it is every single game. It's almost like you can't have one bad game. It can come down a decision which goes for you or against you. We won two trophies, which we would have taken if you had asked some of us at the start of the season, or when we went out of the Champions League.

"Everyone wanted it with all of their hearts, we wanted it as much as the fans, but you cannot complain about two trophies. Celtic is all about winning silverware and last year we only took one. To take two this year was great and who know, maybe next year we will get all three."