Skipper Scott Brown insists he will continue to prove doubters wrong after he ended speculation about his future by signing a new two-year contract with Celtic.
The 33-year-old midfielder joined the Parkhead club from Hibernian in 2007 in a £4.4million deal and has committed his future until the summer of 2021, which gives him the possibility of leading the club to 10 consecutive Ladbrokes Premiership titles.
Brown, who recently made his 500th Celtic appearance, admits he gave "very" serious consideration to an offer from A-League newcomers Western Melbourne.
"I am 33 just now and 34 in the summer and I feel as good as I have done for a long time," said Brown, who will do his A-license this season with a view to a coaching role at Celtic in the future.
"It is something I have done all my career. People have doubted me all the way through.
"People said I would never play football in the first place, I was too small and not aggressive enough.
"It was when I was 11 or 12 coming through, playing at Hibs at the time – I was a tricky winger although you would never believe it – and a few of them said you will never make it, you are too small, not aggressive enough, so I had to go out and prove them wrong and work on my game.
"I think I have managed to win battles that I was never going to win.
"I have stayed here for 12 years and not a lot of people would have expected that when I first signed."
ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Ronnie Esplin, Press Association Sport');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', 'a22379e6-c8f6-4978-bc9d-d5827b5a55aa');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Brown vows to continue silencing doubters after signing new Celtic deal'});