JAMES Forrest and Scott Brown are the only players from the current Celtic squad to have played in all nine seasons of this phenomenal nine-a-row run. In doing so, they’ve become the first players since club legends Billy McNeill, Jimmy Johnstone and Bobby Lennox did so in the 1960s and ‘70s.

Neil Lennon considers both players modern-day greats. And for Forrest, a Celtic Yout Academy graduate who celebrated his 10-year anniversary in the senior side earlier this month, these are honours he doesn’t take lightly.

“To win nine-in-a-row, to play in all seasons and to be in the same company as the likes of Broony, Bobby Lennox, Billy McNeill and Jimmy Johnstone, that’s why you want to play, and keep playing, at a club like Celtic,” he said. “Once you finish, you’ll look back on it fondly, but when it’s still going just now, you want to keep working as hard as you can to keep adding to that and being in amongst it.”

Throughout this nine-in-a-row, Forrest has contributed 84 goals and 90 assists. He’s won a handful of personal accolades and, of course, played a crucial role during the club’s historic Treble Treble success of recent years.

Now, with another league and League Cup double under his belt, the 28-year-old savours all that he’s achieved so far at Celtic, and aims to grow his trophy tally furthermore in years to come.

He added: “It’s been a crazy journey, there have been so many memories, cups, league titles, games in the Champions League, there have been so many highs. When you win stuff, once you get a taste of it, you want more. What the club has done in the last 10 years is amazing and it’s great to be a part of it.

“Now that the league’s been called, we’re desperate to start preparing for next season. Once we are able to start back, the boys will be raring to go.

“Every year with Celtic there is always pressure right from the start of the season. We’re always expected to be challenging for the title and the cups. For us, next year won’t be any different!”

Forrest: to be spoken of with McNeill, Johnstone, Lennox is amazing