Henrik Larsson normally manages to invade any news involving Celtic and he did it again yesterday. As Martin O'Neill's team celebrated winning the SPL title following the 1-0 win over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park, Larsson once more intimated that his football career might soon be over.

After seven years in Glasgow, the Swedish striker has still failed to confirm where he will play next season, and none of it is down to apathy on the part of Larsson or his agent, Rob Jansen. The fact is, in turning 33 in September, Larsson has painfully had to realise that his dream move to a big European club might not materialise, and that retirement from football back home in Sweden may now beckon.

Speaking after yesterday's title-clincher at Rugby Park, Larsson was asked where he would be playing next season. ''I still don't know,'' he said, indicating that his options were quickly diminishing. ''You know, I might just stop.''

Those who have followed the Larsson debate closely, and spoken to the player about his career, will not be surprised by this latest admission. For two years now the Swede has consistently said that, if nothing decent materialises in terms of a big European club in sunnier climes, then he would happily return home to Helsingborg, where he and his wife, Magdalena, have built a new home.

Larsson's long-term goal has always been to complete his playing days at Hogaborg, the smaller of Helsingborg's two football clubs, where he began as a 15-year-old. ''That is my dream, and whatever happens after Celtic, Hogaborg is where I want to finish,'' he told The Herald recently. That wish may now be granted sooner than he expected.

Outside on Rugby Park, Martin O'Neill celebrated his third title in four years in front of 10,000 travelling supporters. Yesterday's win put Celtic on an uncatchable 90 points at the top of the Premierleague with six matches still to play.

While Celtic's victory was thrilling for everyone at Parkhead, it may, in coming just before the league split, after which there is supposed to be spice over the final games, have proved embarrassing to those SPL architects who are supposed to vouchsafe intrigue over the final weeks.

Those who have followed the O'Neill phenomenon at Celtic were pointing yesterday to other remarkable aspects of his four-year reign. As well as a third title, yesterday's win meant Celtic have now played a total of 146 league matches under O'Neill, during which they have lost just seven. None of those losses, of course, have been incurred this season, leaving Celtic with six games in which to complete an unbeaten campaign.

''I know we had a few games left in which to do it but I'm thrilled to have won the title today,'' said O'Neill. ''We lost the championship to Rangers 11 months ago after an epic struggle, as well after the disappointment of the UEFA Cup final, so there was great disappointment in our dressing room last year.

''I think we had an inner determination to really go for it this season and that's what we've done. You tend to miss it when it hasn't happened for you. We won the championship in our first two years here, which was great, but you play over the whole season for a day like today.

''Some things will always be in the shade for us. The disappointment of last season will always be there, even though, as I've said many times, it was still a memorable season for us. But this year has been terrific, and I have to say, I think we've deserved the title.''

O'Neill singled out Jackie McNamara as one of the unlikely heroes of Celtic's season. McNamara played in midfield yesterday - one of four different positions he has filled this season - and he clearly has an admirer in his manager.

''He has been terrific for this club,'' said O'Neill. ''I think he would be vying with a number of players for our player of the season award. Never for one minute have I considered him as just a squad player, but I suppose he has always felt, a bit like Nicky Butt at Manchester United, that when everybody's fit he would not start. But he has been magnificent.''

Intriguingly, given the imminent departure of Larsson, O'Neill also stated, surprisingly, that he was willing to have a closer look to see if any of Celtic's younger players within the current squad could prove capable of filling the Swede's boots.

In a shot across the bow of the Celtic directors, O'Neill had said on Thursday that replacing Larsson would not come cheaply to Celtic, though in fact, nothing could be so cheap as a Larsson replacement from within.

''Henrik is leaving and the first thing we have to do is see if we can replace him from within the current squad,'' said O'Neill.

''So guys like Craig Beattie, Stephen McManus, Ross Wallace, and even some of the younger lads will get a chance between now and the end of the season.''

Predictably, yesterday's events at Rugby Park were shrouded in controversy, none more so than when Billy Brown, the Kilmarnock assistant manager, ranted on BBC television that Kris Boyd's disallowed first-half goal, when the game was still scoreless, should have stood.

Mike McCurry, the match referee, chalked off Boyd's effort for an alleged foul by Eric Skora on Bobo Balde. The TV evidence of the incident was anything but clear, indicating that Skora had contacted both Balde and the ball from behind, though this haziness didn't stop Brown from adjudicating emphatically on the subject, nor from suggesting that McCurry was plain biased.

''It was a scandalous decision by the referee,'' said Brown. ''The ref has got to be a lot fairer than that. The goal would have stood had it been at the other end.''

Brown is as well having his disciplinary cheque to the SFA in the lunchtime post today.

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