Hayes hoping to step back on to the Irish pathway

bigger stage, playing out there at Celtic Park in front of that crowd every week, and it’s a higher standard which can only help my international ambitions.

“Playing under Martin O’Neill for Ireland is a big stage too and it’s to be expected that you can cope. If you don’t think you can cope, for whatever reason, then you shouldn’t really be coming.

“Obviously, Martin has great affection for the club and you could see that glint in his eye when we were talking about Celtic.

“He was asking me about it pretty much every single day. I was reading about myself more in the newspapers and didn’t really know what was happening because I was away with Ireland, I was sheltered a little bit and I just wanted to try and do well with Ireland.

”The way everybody speaks about the club – I got a little bit of background information from Roy Keane and Steve Walford as well – you can tell everyone loves the club. Back home, everybody was asking me about it every day.

“As soon as Celtic were involved, no-one was asking me if I was going anywhere else. They were just asking me when I was going to Celtic and I think they knew that my mind was made up.”

Closer to home, Hayes is also psyched up to experience playing in the Champions League for the first time.

He has already tasted Europa League action with Aberdeen. But he knows that the continent’s elite tournament is a huge ste up.

And having heard the likes of Lionel Messi extol the virtues of the Paradise atmosphere, he knows it will be something special to savour.

“I’ve watched on TV the Champions League games here and it’s hard to get away from people talking about the high regard it’s held in – when you hear the likes of Messi talking about the atmosphere at Celtic Park being the best they’ve ever played in, that’s enough for me.

“If that’s what they think of it, then it’s not going to get much better.

“It’s going to be tough to get into this Celtic team. But to know that the manager wants you is enough for me, and whatever way he sees me fitting in and whatever way he wants to use me, that’s enough for me.”