RONNY Deila saw Stefan Johansen sold to Celtic for £2m last January and felt sure Stromsgodset had driven a hard bargain.

Some 16 months into the midfielder's three-and-a-half year deal and it is rather more uncertain which party got the better deal. Johansen this week confirmed his continued blossoming as a player with a nomination for the PFA Scotland player of the year award, and hinted that there could be further mutually beneficial deals ahead. Deila is on the record as regarding his fellow Norwegian as a long-term building block at Parkhead and the 24-year-old, who has been linked with moves to various unnamed Bundesliga clubs, hinted last night that he would be happy to sit down and talk about a new contract.

"You're always happy to hear that because you know then you have done a good job for the club and the club appreciates you," said Johansen. "But everything about a new contract, that's why I have an agent. Things are going well for me and well for the team but we haven't had the talk about a new contract yet. If it comes up then we will talk about it then. But I really like Glasgow and I really like to play for Celtic. I feel like I've had a good season but I feel I can develop more."

Johansen hasn't just played better than ever before this season, he has played more than ever before. The 24-year-old may no longer have the Scottish Cup final to look forward to, but by the end of this season, assuming he features in Celtic's remaining five league matches - starting today against Dundee United - and two matches for Norway, a friendly against Sweden then a qualifier against Azerbaijan in June, he will have played no fewer than 65 matches. Quite a tally for a man who was previously used to no more than 40 in Norway, not to mention someone who runs himself into the ground pressing from midfield with such alacrity.

"It's my first season playing this many games and it's a new experience for me but I think I've handled it well," said Johansen. "If you play Sunday and then Wednesday you can't go out and run for 60 minutes on Monday. You need to be focused on being the athlete you need to be, even at home. Eating the right things, sleeping at the right time, that's what I've been focusing on."

It isn't just his manager, his contemporaries and the player himself, who feel that Johansen's play has improved this season. The statistics say so too. The Parkhead super computer says he is wasting less touches on the ball, and making better, and quicker, decisions.

"He [Deila] is always looking for the tempo in the game, the one- and two-touch play," said Johansen. "That's one thing I've been working on and my stats show I've been getting better."

Everything Deila has said thus far about elevating the game of the man he originally signed on a free transfer from Bodo/Glimt in January 2011 has come to fruition, but the bad news for everyone else is that he can get better still. The next phase in his development is to become a more consistent goalscorer. Most people would regard 12 goals as a handsome return from a No 10 position, but so frequently does Johansen get into goalscoring positions that you could at least double that.

Johansen's versatility has sometimes been as much of a curse as a blessing. Deila admits that his natural thirst for the pressing game, when played at the base of a midfield, sometimes resulted in the team losing their defensive shape.

"He's very good at pressing but sometimes a little bit wild when you play him as a No 6," said Deila. "He goes out of position a lot. So if he's going to play in the two central ones, he has to be more calm, but in that No 10 role he's perfect because he chases people and they never get a second. His goalscoring is not the best so that needs to improve but it has during the season. The offensive part he still has some per cent to develop and then he could be really good but defensively for a No 10 he's top class. Kris Commons set a big target with 32 goals from that position last season. That was unbelievable. Strikers at Celtic have to try to get at least 20 goals. As a No 10, Stefan has eleven. Hopefully next season he gets up to that next level."

Leadership is another string to his bow. Deila had no qualms handing him the captaincy for the first time in the absence of Scott Brown for a meeting with Partick Thistle earlier this month and was rewarded with a 2-0 win. "I think I have always been that type of player," said Johansen. "I hate to lose in everything I do."

No wonder then, that Deila wants to keep him. "I didn't negotiate that deal [Johansen's move from Stromsgodset] but it turned out to be a good one for Celtic and Stromsgodset. So everybody is happy. Stefan has enhanced his value by coming to Celtic. Playing here does that. That makes it harder for us but we want to keep him.

"He still has more time on his contract, so it is not very important to do it at once," he added. "But we have some players that we know we want to keep and build a team around and he's one of them. Also to get consistency for us, so we don't have to go looking for players like him all the time."

While victory at Dundee, and his PFA Scotland nomination, sweetened the pill a little bit, this was a tough week for Johansen, who was in close proximity to the incident at Hampden last Sunday when Josh Meekings escaped punishment-free despite using an arm to stop a goal-bound Leigh Griffiths header. No-one appealed more vociferously at the time than Johansen about an incident which may ultimately have cost Celtic a treble.

"What can I say?" said Johansen. "Right there and then I thought it was a penalty. I was sure it was a penalty and when I saw the replay I was sure as well. I told the referee it was a penalty but they are human beings. Players make mistakes on the pitch and the referee does as well. It is difficult and a lot of players came around him. Sunday and Monday were really tough and I wish so much that we had gone into the final but that's how football is and it shows how hard it is to win the treble. It happened and in my opinion he made a mistake but let's leave it there. There's nothing I can do or the team can do about it now."