SCOTT Brown admits he would have regretted missing chasing records with Celtic if he had moved his family to Australia.
The 34-year-old came close to joining Western Melbourne on a pre-contract in January but opted to stay at the Scottish champions for two more years in a bid to lead the club to what would be a historic ten league titles in a row.
Brown has 19 winners' medals from his 12 years at Celtic, and while life in the sun did appeal, he's delighted with his decision to add even more silverware to the collection.
Although he admitted: "It looks pretty warm down there. I’m not sure I would cope with the heat! You look at the pros and cons with these things. The pros at Celtic are winning trophies and being part of this team.
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“I’ve been lucky to be at a fantastic club for so long. There’s also the the opportunity to go in at the start of a new club, build it up from nothing and go as far as you could. You look at that as well.
“At the end of the day I went with my heart more than anything.
“I’ve got so many friends at the club and it’s part of my every day life. If I went somewhere else I could be sitting in six months and thinking, ‘what have I done?’
“Yeah, it sounds lovely. The weather’s nice, there’s a golf course... actually, what was I thinking?!
“Ask me again in December if I’ve made the right decision!
“But honestly, with everything going on here, winning eight in a row, going for nine, the place is buzzing. We’ll find out in a year if I’ve made the right choice but I believe I was right to go with my heart.
“It’s a special place to play football. You look at all the changes around the ground since I first came here.
“It’s incredible what the club’s done in the area, the foundation has done really well, there is Billy McNeill and Jimmy Johnstone statues out there. It all means so much to the fans to come up the Celtic way and see the legends on the flags.
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“I don’t know about a Scott Brown statue – could you imagine what it would look like?!”
Celtic have eased through the first two Champions League qualifiers with far more ease than in recent seasons.
They scored 12 goals and conceded just once which has set them up for a more testing two games against Romanian champions Cluj.
Brown has been impressed with how new signing Christopher Jullien, Boli Bolingoli and Marian Shved have started and by how the team as a whole are playing.
He said: "We’ve started really well, we’ve had a good pre-season and the manager has had us pressing high up the park and got us as fit as possible in a short space of time so that we’re ready for the Champions League qualifiers and the start of the Premiership."
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