The news out of Celtic Park is nothing but good right now, and yesterday we had a hint that the best might still be to come. Yesterday we had the first hint that Brendan sees his future beyond the event horizon of his current four year deal.
Now Brendan might just have been joking around, when he talked about staying for the duration not only of his own deal but the one just signed by Kieran Tierney, but I don’t think he’s the sort of guy who does that. He’s too straight a shooter.
Brendan knows what he is building at Celtic Park. There was always the chance that, in the right circumstances, his stay would be extended in advance of his current deal. The guy loves it at Celtic Park, it comes out in every statement he makes and every word he says.
The thing Brendan relishes most is a challenge. The media might say he will get bored with life at Celtic if we’re continually winning the league … but Brendan knows the greater challenge is nights like Tuesday, us making progress on that bigger stage.
I always thought if we could make strides in Europe that it would be a great incentive for Brendan to hang around and carry on the work. That depends on backing, of course, from the club itself and especially in terms of signings and retention of the current squad. The players we have here at Parkhead are all capable, but there’s ever the fear that some of them – like Moussa – will decide to leave before we’ve seen them at their best.
Brendan wants to give Dedryk Boyata a new contract. I hope the player gets it. He has been tremendously improved since the manager arrived and he will continue to get better the longer he plays, and especially when he has a top defender beside him. The thing now, for me, is to get Dembele in and see what it will take for him to give us two more years … a new deal would be a good way to get that commitment out of him.
If we can do that, if we can demonstrate to Brendan that the long-term vision and the long-range ambition exists, why shouldn’t he, too, want to be here for the whole show?
Up until now, I’ve thought of Brendan as a guy who’s going to get us over the ten in a row line but who’s more important job was to build the next version of Celtic for someone else to take over … but why should that be the case?
Today I wonder if Brendan isn’t building it for himself.