Scott Brown has revealed that the prospect of going from one extreme to another prevented him from making a switch to Australia.

The Celtic captain has signed a two-year extension to his deal following a lucrative offer from A-League newcomers Western Melbourne.

And the 33-year-old attributed his decision to playing under pressure in front of 60,000 every week to going through the motions at an up-and-coming club as the reason for his decision to finish his career at Celtic.

“When you go to Celtic Park and see a full stadium it was going to be hard to move to a new club with no fans and they were going to lease a stadium for the first two years,” he said.

“They were going to build a fan base so it’s pretty much starting from nothing and hoping you get up to 20,000 after a season.

“They might do that but it was going to be hard whereas at Celtic you’ve already got the history and I didn’t want to miss any of that.

“I want this club to get back in the Champions League and I want to win more trophies. Listen, the kind of figures mentioned are different but it’s also a totally different game as well.

“For me, when you play at Celtic you play to win games and fans expect you to go and win games but at some places you go fans are happy for you to get a point and the attitude is ‘Ah, it’s okay we’ll win the next game’.

“But for me it’s about winning mentality and it would have been hard for me to go to a club and not expect to win week in, week out and where the fans aren’t as passionate.” Meanwhile, Brown believes he is close to hitting peak fitness after missing a chunk of the opening half of the season with injury

“I’m just getting back to full fitness now and it’s hard when you’re out for so long and you come back and you’re on the bench at first and then start playing again," he said.

“It’s been good to get a wee run of games and feel that match sharpness coming back."