Parkhead skipper Scott Brown 'very close' to signing new deal

The Parkhead skipper has a year left on his current deal but expects to extend it after talks with the club.

Ahead of tomorrow's Clydesdale Bank Premier League clash with St Johnstone at Parkhead, the Scotland midfielder said: "We are getting very close. Hopefully it's just a matter of time, maybe a couple of weeks or so.

"I hope to sign, yes. I want to stay at this club, I enjoy this club. The manager wants me to stay and I want to stay for the manager as well. Since he came in I have improved as a player and hopefully I can improve even more.

"I want to win the league and cups, that's why I came to this club. I have had a taste of it before and I want more."

Celtic manager Neil Lennon was positive about the possibility of a new contract for Brown.

"He is an important player, very influential," said Lennon, who added that his bid to bring in Cameroon international Mo Idrissou is dead in the water. "He didn't have his greatest game last night but the ankle injury had flared up. But his quality has improved in the last year and when he doesn't play we miss him."

Meanwhile, Fraser Forster, who made his second debut in Thursday night's 0-0 draw with Sion in the Europa League after returning for another season-long loan deal from Newcastle, remains upbeat about the return game in Switzerland.

"If we go and score in Switzerland, the game will really favour us," Forster told the Celtic website. "We've just got to be positive about the game.

"From my point of view, it was good to keep a clean sheet but we'd have loved to have scored at least one goal to have the advantage going into next week's game.

"They came to defend, and parked the bus at times, but there are still 90 minutes to go in this tie and I fancy us to go over there and get a positive result."