Craig Gordon, the Celtic goalkeeper, is keen for the club to tie down Stuart Armstrong on a new contract as quickly as possible before some of the main movers and shakers down south start making tempting advances.
Armstrong’s professional renaissance under the Celtic manager, Brendan Rodgers, reached a new high last Sunday when he played a pivotal role in Scotland’s last-gasp victory over Slovenia at Hampden which kept the nation’s faint World Cup qualifying hopes flickering.
In the jubilant aftermath of that 1-0 triumph, Armstrong was showered with torrents of acclaim from all and sundry as he capped an industrious, inventive and inspirational debut by setting up Chris Martin’s 88th minute winner which effectively saved Gordon Strachan’s job as national team manager.
Read more: Craig Gordon doesn't mind how Celtic win the title as championship crown lies in wait
Armstrong, who had fallen out of favour under the previous Celtic boss Ronny Delia but has been revitalised under Rodgers’ rousing regime, has around 16 months left on his current contract with the reigning Scottish champions and Gordon has joined the chorus of praise for the 24-year-old Invernesian.
“He is playing fantastically well at the moment,” stated Gordon. “He wasn’t in the team at the start of the season but went away and worked really hard, got himself in the team and is now playing probably the best football he has ever played.
“To go into a Scotland team and play like he did on Sunday, I thought he was outstanding. The energy he brought into the midfield, he just ran his opposite number into the ground. Slovenia couldn’t deal with him.
“To have that amount of energy in your engine room, with the quality he possesses as well, is great. He scores goals and makes goals. He is a real asset for any team to have.
“He could play at Premier League level. He is turning into a big player and he is doing it in big games now.
“That’s sometimes what you look for from players, to see how they do in the bigger games. He is contributing, scoring in games against Rangers and now creating goals for Scotland.
Read more: Craig Gordon doesn't mind how Celtic win the title as championship crown lies in wait
“He’s got everything, really, and is playing with so much confidence at the moment. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some really big teams looking at him.”
The next big international meeting for Gordon, Armstrong and the rest of the Scotland squad is the Hampden showdown with old foes England on June 10. Whether another Celtic mainstay, Scott Brown, will be involved in the cross-border tussle remains to be seen but Gordon believes his team-mate has earned the right to make up his own mind despite outside criticisms that he shouldn’t be allowed to pick and choose his appearances. “He is at something like 500 games now at Celtic and has a lot of miles on the clock,” added Gordon.
“We want him to play in every game he possibly can. He is the same. He just wants to keep playing. He goes through injuries and knocks, no-one ever knows he is injured. He never makes a fuss, he just gets on with it and plays through almost any injury he possibly can. He is always out there leading the team.
"He’ll know himself if he can do the team justice or not. If he feels that he can’t go out there and do as well as he wants to do then that is his decision.
"I think we should respect that because I think he has earned that with the amount of football he has played over his career and the way he has gone about his business."
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