MARTIN O'NEILL once famously prophesied that, after starring against Barcelona as a teenager, David Marshall would find his career was downhill from that point onwards.

Tonight, as the likeable Glaswegian falls under the spotlight as the intended £15million target for Arsenal prepares to win another Scotland cap, Marhall is entitled 10 years on to reflect on that statement with a wry smile.

There is no bitterness, just an appreciation that, but for sheer hard work and unwavering determination, O'Neill might indeed have been correct.

He was forced to leave the club he loved to reverse out a career cul-de-sac, and had reason to wonder if he had made a huge mistake as he toiled to enjoy life or football at Norwich.

The move to Cardiff, and subsequent promotion to the Barclays Premier League - albeit for a short stay - allowed him to realise his ambitions, as has the step up to overtake Allan McGregor as Scotland's No.1 after years of making up the numbers in squads.

When asked if O'Neill's prophecy 10 years ago after his performance in the Nou Camp ever comes to mind, he replied: "Not that particular comment. But I can understand why it was said.

"Even at Celtic you don't play against Barcelona every week, so of course it's not going to be as big as that all of the time.

"People were probably thinking, he had a good six months or two years when he was younger at Celtic, but it went sort of downhill from then.

"That motivates you to try and show that's not the case.

"I know how hard it is. You need that bit of luck as well, getting promoted, things like that.

"If you don't get promoted, you don't get the publicity. So there are a lot of factors in it.

"I didn't want to be one of those players who went down to England then went back up the road. I wanted to stick it out and do as well as I could. I still stay down here and play at as high a level as I can.

"It's been good for me. I have always wanted to work hard, and if you keep doing that, you should get your rewards."

Having suffered relegation after just one season in the top flight, you would be forgiven for believing Marshall is looking for an escape route back to the top.

But his wife and kids love life in the Welsh capital, and that is very important to the man who, this season, agreed a new contract which is due to run until 2018.

Arsenal might change all of that if they follow up with a definite bid in an attempt to bring Marshall in as a replacement for Lukasz Fabianski.

But, for now, Marshall is content to sit tight.

He has a pragmatic outlook and said of the transfer speculation: "I'll just see what happens. There are only so many keepers can play in the Premier League.

"You go through the squads, and the clubs have all got two, and the top ones have three, good goalies.

"If something like that comes up, you just have a look at it.

"But, I signed a new deal at Cardiff in February. So, if I am at Cardiff, I'll be more than happy to try and get back up with them."

An instant bounce back could depend on Marshall's form. It was highly impressive all season, during which he made more saves than any other keeper in the division.

Then came the sucker punch as relegation hit him in the solar plexus.

"It was a difficult season. Any keeper coming up with a promoted side is going to have to make a lot saves," said Marshall.

"It was good for me to play in the league. That's the reason I came down south, to try and get to that level.

"So, it was great to be there. But to go down again so quickly was very disappointing.

"The last few weeks, we knew it was coming because we were struggling just to beat teams round about us really.

"We have signed a couple of players already, so, hopefully, we can go straight back up.

"But, we know how tough it is to get promotion from the Championship. We had two years of trying under Malky Mackay, and, even before he became boss, with Dave Jones we got to the play-off final.

"It's so tough. Just look at Derby. They got so close, battered QPR second half in the play-off final, and still couldn't get there.

"We have got a good squad, but we need to keep these players together and get a good start."

Marshall being the main one.

As well as a fantastic Premier League season, his CV boasts his status as national No.1 with Scotland.

It's all coming together at once, and he admits he could not have envisaged being in this situation even a few years ago.

Marshall said: "It's been a bit of a weird career, because I started so young.

"It does frustrate you when you look back and go through everything. But, I'm 29 now, which is not that old, really, in terms of keepers.

"When you are young, you are just desperate to play.

"To have had that experience is great, but I have had difficult times as well.

"The last couple of years have been good for me, at club and international level.

"Greegsy [McGregor] has been injured and suspended for some of the recent trips. So, to get a chance under Gordon Strachan has been good for me."

Even an end-of-season friendly gets his juices going.

"I'm more than happy to play in this game," he explained.

"I've been in the squad now for getting on 10 years, so just to get games is good. We're on a decent run. The last four or five games have gone well for us.

"If we can get another positive result, it will keep things going ahead of the qualifiers starting in September.

"The gaffer has been good. We know we have now got a good squad, we have been getting results and we know what we have to do."

The high attendance level of the squad this week reflects the desire to be part of something good.

"It always goes hand in hand," said Marshall.

"If you're not doing well, there are always a lot of call offs. If you are doing well, no one wants to miss out. We have a tight squad."

We know we have to work hard together because we do not have that world-class player.

"But we have proved with the results against Poland, Norway, America, Croatia and even with our performance against England we are a hard team to beat."