Sources close to Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon have confirmed that the player is expected to formalise a three-and-a-half year contract extension this week which will secure his long-term future is at the Parkhead club.
The 34-year-old Scotland internationalist is currently under contract with Celtic until June 2018. However, two bids from Chelsea during the January transfer window have been the catalyst for Celtic offering Gordon an improved and longer deal at the club.
It is understood that the goalkeeper wished to speak to the Premier League leaders when their interest in him arose in January and there were suggestions that he may have resisted the offer of a further deal in order to ascertain whether Chelsea would return again this summer.
With Stamford Bridge number one Thibaut Courtois rumoured to be heading to Real Madrid this summer and back-up keeper Asmir Begovic looking to make the move to Bournemouth that was blocked because Chelsea could not secure Gordon, there remained some uncertainty over whether the former Hearts and Sunderland stopper would be tempted to wait for a further offer in June.
Brendan Rodgers, though, was insistent that he did not wish to lose his first choice goalkeeper. Gordon initially lost his place to Dorus De Vries in the early days of Rodgers’ arrival at the club but has since firmly established himself as the number one at the club.
The Celtic manager had no desire to look for a goalkeeper at a time when Celtic will be preparing for UEFA Champions League qualifying ties, games that essentially underpin the club’s season with Rodgers unequivocal in his insistence that Gordon would remain at the club.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here