I would have to say that Scott Brown is as deserving as anyone of his testimonial game.

Coming the day after the Cup Final, there is the potential for it to be a pretty spectacular afternoon if Celtic do succeed in going on to achieve the unprecedented feat of a back-to-back treble.

But back to brown. He has grown from a petulant lad into an excellent Celtic player and captain and over the course of this season I think he has shown that he is one of the outstanding candidates for the Player of the Year award.

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What you would say about Brown is that he is without question the most influential player in the Celtic dressing room.

He is the guy you really notice when he isn’t there because he is the lynchpin of that midfield. It is a magnificent gesture to hand over a portion of the money raised – and I am pretty certain that the game will be a sell-out – to Liam Miller’s family.

People will always be critical and will brush it off as the behaviour of someone who doesn’t need the money but it is not everyone who would do it. He deserves a huge amount of credit for it and I would suspect that they place will be backed to the rafters for the game against Ireland.

He is the guy who comes in for the most amount of stick from supporters of other teams but for me that is something that you should always see as a compliment.

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Most opposition fans would never admit it, but the reason he is singled out for stick is because of how difficult he is to play against. He is the kind of player that every team needs.

I don’t imagine that when he first signed for Celtic that people would have expected him to play the role that he has. To me, he matured enormously as his career went on and under Brendan Rodgers he really has taken his game up a notch again.

People often overlook just how successful his Celtic career has been. He has the most European appearances of any Scottish based player, which is a stat not to be sniffed at given the demands that come with sustaining European involvement.

The thing about Brown is that he looks as though he still has plenty of football left in him and the fact that he has stepped down from the international scene means that he will get the chance to rest and recover at key points now.

Brown will be one of the first names on the teamsheet every week. There are a number of options in the middle of the park for Celtic but he is the mainstay.

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Interestingly, there could be more bodies in there this summer if Ryan Christie comes back to the club and Lewis Morgan arrives too. The fight for places in that area of the team is clear.

It might be that come the end of the season there is a decision of one or two to move on because I do think that you can have a squad that is too big. You want to keep everyone happy and keep the balance of the squad right and that can be complicated if the squad gets too big.

It is also interesting to observe Tom Rogic’s situation. I still think that there is room for negotiations yet as both parties look to get what they want.

At 25, Rogic will see this next contract as arguably the most important of his career. This is the one that can set him up financially but it is still well within Celtic’s power to offer him a deal that would keep him at the club.

However, what it may well boil down to is whether or not Rogic himself decides that he wants go and experience football elsewhere. The lad has had his injury issues at Celtic but I think we have all seen that he is a player capable of creating something out of nothing.

He is also one of the players at the club whom you can rely upon whenever the big occasion calls. You would like to think that everything will be done to keep him but with the chance to showcase his talent at the World Cup this summer then he may just fancy keeping his options open and seeing what comes next.

Even so, I wouldn’t think that it would be too late then for Celtic to entice him to stay. These things always take a bit of time and even if Rogic himself is wanting to have a look and assess his options at the end of the summer, there could still be a decision to remain at the club.