GORDON STILL WANTS TO BE PLAYING TOP-CLASS FOOTBALL AT 40

Gordon out to make sure new deal is not his last after seeing Chelsea transfer die

CRAIG GORDON celebrated signing a new three-anda-half year deal at Celtic last night and set his sights on starring for the club into his 40s.

The 34-year-old was rewarded for his superb form when he penned a lucrative new deal to keep him at the club until 2020 — despite still having 18 months remaining on his previous £12,000-a-week deal.

Celtic were determined to hang on to Gordon after rejecting two bids from Chelsea of up to £3.5million in the January transfer window. And, after signing his improved contract, the Celtic No 1 hopes to emulate goalkeepers such as Edwin van der Sar, Brad Friedel and Gianluigi Buffon in playing at the top level for as long as possible.

‘It’s a good length of contract for someone my age, but I believe I can still go on and get another one after that,’ said Gordon.

‘I can play for a few more years beyond this current contract.

‘For how long? I will tell you in five or six years, but Buffon at 39 has shown you can play for a long time as a keeper. He is a few years older than me, but he will go on until he’s 40. Hopefully, I can do that as well.

‘Mark Schwarzer was playing in the Champions League for Chelsea at 41. Friedel and Van der Sar are both goalkeepers who also played for a long time.

‘We have good facilities at Celtic that are getting better all the time. We have sport science staff who look after you. That side of things is fantastic here.

‘We have the opportunity to look after our bodies better than ever before and to push those boundaries. The improvements in that side of things will allow players to play for even longer.

‘But it’s good to get my new deal over the line and now I can focus on the rest of the season.’

Gordon admitted the prospect of joining Antonio Conte’s titlechasing side did prey on his mind as he was relentlessly quizzed on his future by team-mates, family and friends.

‘I could have made a big fuss about it,’ he shrugged. ‘Players have done that before by coming out to force through (a move). I am not that type of person.

‘Irrespective of that, the club wanted to keep me and I was happy to stay. It was attractive, but there was a lot going for the option to stay.

‘I’m playing at Celtic. There are no guarantees of playing games (at Chelsea). I could have done. I might not have done.

‘But I didn’t ever have to make that decision. It never got to that point. Did I ever envisage leaving? Not really because I knew that the manager or club weren’t going to accept the bids. So there was not a decision for me to make.

‘But, at the same time, you never know right up until the deadline whether there is a point where it might be an option for the club and they want the money. That would have changed the situation, but it didn’t.

‘Everyone was wanting to know what is happening, but you are in the dark until a bid is accepted.

‘People think you’re lying when you tell them you don’t know what’s happening, but really that was true.

‘It’s difficult to shut it out and play your best but I did quite well during that period of time. And when the window shut and the manager straight away said he wanted me to extend my contract I was happy to do that.

‘The fact I’m playing, winning, having the opportunity to play in the Champions League and winning in those matches, is why I came here in the first place.

‘I’ve had a little taste of the Champions League and I’d love to get back there. Our performances this season got better and better and we have to look to try and progress and do even better.

‘We had players who had not played there before, but I think we slowly started to feel we belonged at that level. In terms of performances, it was a decent campaign, especially away to Borussia Monchengladbach and Manchester City, and City at home.

‘But we need to see if we can do better. We have room to improve with the players we already have and strengthening the squad for next season.’

Gordon admitted penning a deal to remain at Parkhead until 2020 was a long way off when he first arrived at the club after two years out with knee trouble. Back in 2014, England international goalkeeper Fraser Forster, now at Southampton in the English Premier League, was No 1.

‘I came in really as a training goalkeeper to see how it went to start with,’ he admitted. ‘There was no real expectation of how my injury or how my career would pan out from there.

‘So it was a little bit of a leap of faith to see if I could still cope with this level of football.

‘I probably did think there was a chance of staying in the longer term, but I knew it was something I’d need to work on to get there.

‘Fraser Forster was still here when I first arrived and he played in the first European qualifier that season with Lukasz Zaluska on the bench. I was in the stand as the third choice for the beginning of that campaign.

‘For the first few games of the season, I still wasn’t even in the squad, so I knew there was an awful lot of work to be done — but here we are.

‘Now I could end up being here for six years. To be at a club like this for that length of time would be great.’

“I believe I can still go and get another deal”