Kris Commons in ‘no rush’ to extend Celtic deal

Celtic's Kris Commons wears a surprised look - but his club form has seen him shortlisted for a PFA award. Picture: SNS

The player will turn 31 in August, by which time he could be the reigning PFA Scotland player of the year, having been shortlisted yesterday alongside Celtic team-mates Virgil van Dijk and Fraser Forster, as well as Kilmarnock striker Kris Boyd. Such an accolade could further help attract Commons to English clubs looking to capitalise on his goal-threat.

“I’ve still got a year left on my contract and I’m only 30 – it’s not as if I’m 35 or 36 and trying to nick another 12 months,” he said, when asked yesterday about his future.

Commons is a stage in a footballer’s career when it is viewed he has the potential for one last big move, should he wish to leave the club – or Celtic want to sell him.

A traumatic housebreaking at his home outside Glasgow, and while he and his partner and three children slept upstairs, will not influence his thinking, and neither, Commons stressed, will manager Neil Lennon’s own future plans.

“Okay I was burgled, but I think that was a one-off,”

said Commons, before adding: “I don’t think it’s in my job description to ask him [Lennon] if he’s staying before I decide to sign – I’d probably get a slap in the face if I did ask him!”

Commons admitted the lure of Champions League football, where he says Celtic have “unfinished business” after finishing bottom in their group earlier this season, does make remaining at the club seem all the more attractive.

“Most people down there [in England] who say that would be jealous of what we have at Celtic,” he said. “Just about any of our home games has a better atmosphere than everything down south, big derbies apart.”