James Forrest is ready to silence his dissenters after insisting that he never wanted to quit Celtic.

Former Hoops boss Ronny Deila had said at the end of February that the club had tabled its final offer to the 25-year-old after a series of negotiations had broken down, and it seemed certain that Forrest would be headed out of the club.

However, the Scotland internationalist signed a three-year extension this week after impressing new manager Brendan Rodgers. And the pacey winger maintained that he had never contemplated leaving the club.

“I’m buzzing to get it done,” he said. “All pre-season I wanted to get it sorted. I’m just glad that’s it now and I can just concentrate on playing. Nothing’s ever changed for me. I’ve always said I wanted to stay here. I’ve been here since I was nine and never wanted to leave.

“We can all read stuff but I never had in my head that it was definitely done and I was definitely away. I knew in April that there was going to be a new manager and I was kind of hoping then that when the new manager was in there was going to be a clean slate and I could should him what I could do and I am just glad that happened.

“It’s not about proving people wrong but doing it for yourself. I’ve been at this club for so many years and I’ve wanted to extend that. I’m glad it’s done.

“I always knew that I was going to stay but until you sign then people don’t know. I am just glad that it is done. It is a great club and you see the other night how good the fans were the other night.”

Rodgers has clearly been pivotal to the player committing his future to the club and Forest admitted that he has felt a spring in his step since the former Liverpool manager arrived.

That has been reflected in recent displays which have been more in keeping with the form the player showed when he first emerged in the Celtic first-team and the player believes he is ready to prove some of his critics wrong.

“I told the manager that as soon as he came in that I wanted to stay. I’ve never said anything different,” said Forrest.

“He just told me to go and impress like everyone else and that I’d get my chance. I’m glad I’ve done that and signed. He phoned me in the off season and said he’d seen me play before and liked the way I’d played. He just said to come back, that pre-season was going to be hard so to come back in good shape and to show him what I had.

“Basically it was a clean slate so I knew I was going to get my chance to at least show what I could do."