STEPHEN McManus is determined to repeat his successful debut season as Celtic captain with another championship triumph and can only hope for a less traumatic backdrop than last term.
McManus lifted the Premier League title in May after Celtic clawed their way back into the championship race and avoided a trophyless season, with Rangers claiming both domestic cups.
McManus also had to cope with the deaths of former Celtic midfi
elder and family friend Phil O'Donnell, plus popular coach Tommy Burns.
The 25-year-old spoke movingly about his former youth development boss and first-team coach on the day Burns died, as Celtic prepared for their title decider. But he got the chance to dedicate the SPL crown to Burns when Celtic completed a seven-match winning run at Dundee United.
And he is keen to lead Celtic to their fourth consecutive title after firmly getting to grips with his role.
"It was a challenging year but I just tried to deal with things as best as I possibly could," the Scotland international said.
"There are going to be additional responsibilities, there will be difficult times when you are asked to step up and speak on behalf of the club or players, but it's something that you maybe expect as captain of this club.
"Given what happened last year, that made it all the more important that we won the league and getting that title at the end of the campaign was the main thing for me.
"It was what we had to do and with that in mind, I've enjoyed every minute of being the captain of this club. I just hope we'll be able to do it again this year."
McManus admits it took some time to get to grips with the demands of being captain and the inherent responsibility.
"Everything is magnified, both what you do on the field and off it, you just can't get away from it," he said. "I don't think I've ever had a time when so many people were approaching me in the street, telling me what they thought I should be doing, where we were going wrong and what we were doing right.
"But you need to deal with that and I've been fortunate enough to grow up with it at this club, so you get an idea of what it's about."
McManus could find himself lining up alongside Romania centre-half Gabriel Tamas next season if Celtic follow up their interest in the player, whose agent claims he is keen to move to Parkhead.
However, Auxerre are said to be looking for up to £5million for the 24-year-old and have had no contact from Celtic.
The full article contains 453 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
