It seemed strange seeing Stephen McManus turn out in a Motherwell jersey this season.

This is a guy who was just 30, had 26 Scotland caps, had played in the Champions League for Celtic and had multiple domestic medals to his name. Motherwell is a proud Scottish club, but was this a descent from the giddy heights?

McManus is quick to put you right on certain things. "Yes, of course there is a part of me that would still want to be playing at a higher level, in England, or in the Champions League," he says. "But I'm enjoying my life again. I'm enjoying my football and my family is happy. We have contentment. All of that is pretty important to me."

McManus first broke into the Celtic first team when he was 21 under Martin O'Neill in 2004. It is something he is quick to point out was no run-of-the-mill feat.

"Plenty is said about the number of players who don't make it at Rangers or Celtic - well, what about those of us who do?" he asks. "When I did the club was packed with great players, like Henrik Larsson, Stan Petrov, Chris Sutton and others. Whatever else I've done in my career, I made the grade at Celtic. It's not to be sniffed at."

This endlessly polite footballer arrived at Celtic Park when he was 14 and determinedly made his way through the ranks, while others fell by the wayside. Once established, McManus accumulated enviable honours, including three successive championships under Gordon Strachan, plus two Scottish Cups and two League Cups.

To this day McManus lauds the methods of the current Scotland manager. "It happens with some players and managers - they just click, they are good for one another. That's how it was with me and Gordon at Celtic. He was good for me, he built up my confidence and made me his captain. That period at Celtic was a very good time in my career, for club and country."

And yet, having tasted such success at Celtic under Strachan, things took a different turn with the arrival of Tony Mowbray at Parkhead in the summer of 2009. There is a tendency from the outside to view Mowbray as the man who altered McManus' career for the worse, but he explains it in more complex terms.

"I had some disagreements with Tony Mowbray, but I've got plenty of time for him, and there are no grudges," he says. "He was a new manager arriving at Celtic and he faced difficult decisions, like any manager coming in to a new club.

"A turning point in my career was getting injured in the last four or five weeks of Gordon Strachan's time at Celtic in 2009. I was out injured for about four months when Tony came in and I missed the whole pre-season.

"I wasn't fully fit and everyone knows what then happened. Celtic basically had three centre-backs - me, Gary Caldwell and Glenn Loovens - and Tony was still trying to find his feet at Celtic and wasn't sure which two from the three he should play. After an Old Firm game at Ibrox [in October 2009 when Celtic lost 2-1] in which me and Glenn played, Tony said something to the effect, 'if these players aren't good enough, then they won't be here.'

"That was the starting point for me, in terms of leaving Celtic. My relationship with Tony probably deteriorated a little, and it applied to other players, like Lee Naylor, Barry Robson and Scott McDonald. But I've no issue at all with Tony over it. In fact, I played quite a bit under him, both at Celtic and then at Middlesbrough."

McManus admits to being a bit bamboozled when, having signed for Strachan at Middlesbrough, scarcely four months passed in 2010 before Strachan would be sacked and guess who arrived as the new manager.

"When Tony first got the Middlesbrough job after Gordon a part of me was saying, 'I cannot believe this . . . this is the guy who got rid of me at Celtic.' But, in fact, I played much more under him than I thought I would. It was quite funny - he had got rid of me at Celtic, but he actually made me captain in his opening games at Middlesbrough. Then, in my second game under Tony, I got hit with a tackle and was out for another four months."

In three and a half years on Teesside, in between some lengthy injuries, McManus played 70 games for the club, including 24 in season 2010/11 and 23 the following term. He dismisses the theory that it was all bad news.

"I loved my time at Middlesbrough and the fans were great to me there," he says. "There was also a financial issue at the club, in which Tony had to cut his cost-base. A lot of the players were earning big money. Some of them were still on Premiership wages, even though the club had gone down to the Championship."

Having been out on loan twice to Bristol City, come last summer McManus knew he had a decision to make about his future. Foremost in his mind was the fact that his wife and two children, for good reasons, were back living in the west of Scotland. A meeting with Stuart McCall in Florida last June finally made up his mind about his future.

"There was a certain [financial] figure I had in mind that might have kept me in England, but things never really materialised to my liking," he says. "I had a few options - stay on in England, go to MLS, go to Australia - but I just felt it was the right time to head up the road.

"I spoke to Steven Pressley at Coventry - a really impressive guy. I spoke to Pat Fenlon about going to Hibs. But when I met Stuart McCall in Florida we sat for hours and talked football and I really took to him. I just thought, 'right, enough of this where am I going next . . . I'm going to Motherwell. That's it.'

"I'm not earning at Motherwell what I've earned previously. I get embarrassed talking about money, but of course I could be earning more. But other factors are important to me, like my family being settled, like playing week in, week out. I'm happy at Motherwell."

This is an international weekend. Does he harbour any notions of an international recall for Scotland under his former manager?

"It's not my way to start speaking about that," says McManus. "If Gordon ever needed me then I'd never turn him down. The proudest moments for me were when I represented my country.

"But I feel in a happy place at Motherwell. My ambition right now is just to play regularly for my club, which is something I've not always achieved over the past three years. I'll happily take things from there."