MIKAEL Lustig has pledged his future to Celtic for the next two years because he believes Brendan Rodgers is building something special at Parkhead and he wants to be involved in it.

The right back has no doubts that his manager will, despite the offers he is sure to receive to return to English football as a consequence of his success in Scotland, feel the same way as him.

Rodgers, who spent spells in charge of both Swansea City and Liverpool in the top flight down south, has done exceptionally well since moving to this country last summer. His team have qualified for the Champions League group stages, won the Betfred Cup and built up a 27-point lead at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership table.

If they beat Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the fifth round of the William Hill Scottish Cup at Parkhead this afternoon they will move a step closer to securing only the fourth treble in their 129 year history.

The Northern Irishman’s exploits has led to inevitable speculation that he will be lured back to the Barclays Premier League in the not too distant future. But his Swedish defender, who agreed a contract extension last month that keeps him at Celtic until 2019, is not so sure.

“I signed here because I really like playing for this club and what’s going on at this club right now seems fun and I want to be a part of it,” said Lustig.

“It’s different being a player and being a manager. As a player you have quite a short career. As a manager you can go on for a long time. Some of them are 75 and are still working as a manager.

“I think he (Rodgers) really enjoys his time here at Celtic. He has been a Celtic fan since he was a kid. I think that he will want to be here for a couple of years at least, to form this club, and he’s started really well.

“I might have stayed anyway, but of course the manager was a factor in my decision. It feels like Celtic are going somewhere now that we can bring in players of real quality. We aim to be a steady team in Europe as well.”

Lustig signed for Celtic from Norwegian club Rosenborg five years ago when Neil Lennon was manager and has enjoyed many triumphs with the Glasgow club both domestically and in Europe since. He feels, though, that the standard has been raised noticeably since Rodgers was brought in.

“Just look at the signings we can do,” he said. “Scott Sinclair and Moussa Dembele have come in. They are really good players. Over the last two years we maybe wouldn’t have gone for those kind of signings.”

Dembele showed his quality once again against St. Johnstone at McDiarmid Park last Sunday when he came off the bench in the second half and scored a hat-trick to secure a 5-2 victory and take his personal tally for the season to 23.

“He came on and scored the penalty with his first touch,” he said. “It seems quite simple, the things he does, but he is always in the box and when he gets a chance, he scores.”

Lustig, who had earlier attempted a spectacular, if unsuccessful, overhead kick, had a big hand in Dembele’s third goal. The right back supplied the penultimate pass of an intricate move with a rabona. That a player in his position attempted such an audacious manoeuvre highlighted that confidence is sky high in this Celtic team.

“I don’t practice it (the rabona) in training,” he said. “It’s something I have tried before, but it is going to be a big thing when it is part of a goal. It was just an instinctive thing. It’s not as if I’m thinking of doing it before the game, I’m not that type of player. But I got the ball and it was on my left foot, so I thought ‘why not?’.”