“It’s the biggest accolade I can give him, but, thankfully, Scott has chosen to play nearly 10 years at Celtic and still looks as strong and fit.
“I remember Harry Redknapp wanting to take him. Harry told me that so there’s no doubt he’s had moves where he could’ve left here.
“But Scott was happy in his life and happy here at Celtic. This is a hard place to leave. If money’s not the consideration – and no-one can deny any player or any person the chance to consider doubling or trebling their salary – then other things come into it.
“Scott’s always been happy here and the supporters love him, they see his worth and probably even more at this stage.
“He’s devoting his life to football, is really strong and his preparation, his diet, the training methodology will always quicken him up, speed his game and get him tactically thinking.
“You saw last Sunday, Scott was magnificent and he can certainly retire in the comfort of knowing he could probably have played in that league and at the biggest level.
“But he’s happy and that’s the most important thing in life.
“He’s just really devoted himself to how I’ve wanted the team to operate on the field and off it.
“If he was playing at a better level than he’s at just now, both physically and tactically, I’d be surprised.”
“We’ve played nine and it should be nine wins from nine. We dropped two points in Inverness that we shouldn’t have done, but the team is improving.
“Lots of players are developing well and over the course of the season we are looking to improve even more.
“It’s about improving the individual and, collectively, that will improve the team. As the season goes on then the team will get better and better. That’s the aim.”
