When English Premier League giants Chelsea attempted to prise Craig Gordon away from Celtic a year ago, it is no indictment on his ability, but more the stage he was at in his career, to suggest that eyebrows were raised. Given that Antonio Conte is reportedly lining up a move for Peter Crouch 12 months on, perhaps Gordon’s prospective switch to Stamford Bridge doesn’t look so outlandish on reflection.

The player himself admits that the prospect was a tempting one. Yes, first-team football may have been hard to come by, but the financial rewards on offer would likely have set him up more than comfortably for life. As it turned out, Celtic dug their heels in, and Gordon remained in Glasgow. On reflection though, any feelings of regret from the time have been replaced by contentment at the memories he subsequently created at Celtic that money simply can’t buy.

“It was the last week of the window,” Gordon recalled. “The bid wasn’t accepted, I stayed here.?But at the same time, we were in the middle of a great season where it looked as if we were going to do something really special, and everyone felt an undefeated season was a possibility.

“We talked about in Dubai this time last year, we said ‘This is on, we have enough within the squad to do it’. It never came out, we never said it publicly, but certainly within the squad we thought it was possible to go and do something very special, which we did in the end.

“To be able to look back and have that memory in my career is worth…I actually don’t think you could ever put a monetary value on that for however much you’d earn elsewhere or be part of any other team.

“To do that in Scotland with Celtic, it’s something that will be remembered forever.”

And Gordon has more reason than most to be proud of Celtic’s ‘Invincibles’ run, making more appearances than any other player.

“To be a part of that - I think I only missed four or five games in the whole season, I probably played the most games of that invincible run - as something to look back on in your career, these are the things you value.

“Achievements like that, the number of caps you earn, they’re the things you’ll hold on to and remember rather than how much money you’ve earned. That’s what I want to look back on my career and remember.”

Gordon is hoping that this season’s excursion to Dubai can have a similar galvanising effect on the Celtic players as it did this time last year. While returning to these rather chillier shores has been something of a shock to the system, Gordon is certain that the champions are steeled for what lies ahead.

“I watched the plane go overhead on Wednesday morning and thought it would be nice to just turn around and go back to training in 20 degrees instead of the snow,” he said.

“But it’s back to reality - we’ve got five games in 16 days, which is a lot, and then the European games beyond that.

“There’s still a lot of football to be played this season. it doesn’t leave a lot of time between training, you’re recovering between games to get ready for the next one, so you just get into the rhythm and keep going. Hopefully we can get the results to make it another successful season.

“We did really well coming back from the break last year and made the second half of the season a lot easier for ourselves with the momentum we built up - hopefully we can do something similar this time.

“We had eight clean sheets in that run as well, and it would be nice to get a few more this time.

“We’ve still had a reasonable number of them this season but if we can get a decent run of not conceding then that’ll make games an awful lot easier for us.”

There has been much made of the lack of signings at Celtic so far this month, particularly in defence after Marvin Compper picked up an injury that will keep him out for four weeks. But Gordon is unconcerned.

He said: “It’s a good group, a really good group, who get on really well and work really hard for each other.

“So, from that point of view, there’s nothing needed. If the manager wants to add one or two, I’m sure it’ll be the right type of person who’ll fit in to the way of working that we have and the spirit we have within the camp.

“That’s important. As well as any player with ability, it’s to come in and fit in to this squad and be the type of person to get on with everyone and get right into that same mindset going into every game that we’re all together.”