Young defender is keen to see Brown extend Celtic stay

STEPHEN WELSH says all of Scott Brown’s team-mates want the Celtic captain to extend his unique influence by playing on next season. Brown recently revealed it will be his call on whether to move into coaching when his contract expires amid a summer of change at Parkhead. The 35-year-old has spent periods on the bench during the current campaign, but a strong display in Saturday’s 1-0 win over Aberdeen was his sixth start in the last seven games. Young centre-back Welsh stresses that Brown has earned the right to decide his own future after 14 trophy-laden years at Parkhead. However, the 21-year-old is clear about how deeply the skipper’s absence would be felt and pointed to Brown’s fitness levels as evidence of his enduring capability. ‘Broony is massive for us — massive,’ said Welsh. ‘He’s our leader and we would miss him a lot if he wasn’t there next season. ‘We need to take every day as it comes. I don’t know what he’s going to do. ‘Personally, I would love him to be here as long as possible because he helps me so much. ‘He helps every single player in the team as captain and when he’s on the pitch he is brilliant for us. He is such an important player. ‘His intensity in every single training session never drops for a second. Every single day, even if it’s a rest day, he is doing everything he can to prepare in the right way. ‘If you look at our training sessions, his stats are still up there as the highest in terms of runs. He is one of the fittest players in the team. ‘He has been brilliant for Celtic for so many years and it goes without saying that we all want him to stay. ‘It’s completely up to him. He’s achieved so much for the club and it’s only right that he makes the decision. But yeah, of course we all want him to stay.’ Brown joined Celtic from Hibernian in a £4.4million deal in 2007 and has been a consistent presence through six changes of manager at the club. ‘Everybody sees what he does on the park, but off the park he is just as big,’ added Welsh. ‘When it comes to the atmosphere in the changing room and bringing everyone together, Broony is at the centre of it. ‘He gets us going, he leads us on the park, he’s always talking to you and he is also a quality player. ‘You can’t discount how good a player he still is and he has been such a big help to me over the last few years.’