James Forrest has said that his new contract at Celtic is close to completion and he's keen to sign the paperwork and get on with what he feels is an exciting season at the club.

The winger's existing contract runs until 2022 but he has been in talks with the club's hierarchy about a new deal.

The 28-year-old, who came through the club's youth set-up, said he's always been happy to stay at Celtic and that made discussions easy.

"I think it's near enough done," he said. "Hopefully it'll be really soon since everything is basically agreed.

"I would like to get it done soon and just focus on playing.

"I've always stated that I want to be here at Celtic and the club have been the same. Talks have been really positive and it's near the end so we just sign and then get back to playing games, like I want to do."

On the pitch, Forrest is enjoying an exciting season with his side in top form, beating Lazio in the Europa League on Thursday and scoring ten goals without reply in the two league games either side of that fixture.

Despite their form, the defending champions are being run close in the league with Rangers level on points. Forrest said that the competition from the other side of the city would only make Celtic better in the long run.

"I think when you look at the last couple of years it's been tighter," he said. "Other teams are strengthening as well.

"It's really tight just now and both teams are doing well in Europe.

"It's competitive and we know that. But we just need to stick to our own game and worry about ourselves and we're playing well. We just need to keep that form up.

"You've seen how close it is with both teams on the same amount of points. It's good because you raise your standards and you raise your game when you know that you can't afford to slip up or teams around will punish you.

"It keeps the edge and we go into every game knowing we need to be at the top of our game to get the points we want."