CELTIC have seen off Yokohama Marinos' £3million bid to lure Shunsuke Nakamura back to Japan in January.

The midfield maestro's agent, Robert Takuda, has concluded his latest round of talks with Parkhead chief executive Peter Lawwell. And the outcome is that Naka will remain at Celtic until his contract runs out at the end of this season.

The news will be celebrated by Celtic fans but no one will be happier than manager Gordon Strachan who exclusively revealed in SportTimes yesterday that the club's early crash from Europe this season would not mean the departure of Nakamura in the next transfer window.

Lawwell was also confident that the Spl champions could see off the advances of Marinos, who have repeatedly tried over the course of the last year to negotiate a deal to take their national hero back to the club where he first made his name.

With sponsors Nissan Motors originally bankrolling the bid, and commercial spin-offs forecast to be worth several million pounds to the J-league club, Marinos believed they could have their man in January.

Strachan, however, has remained adamant Naka wants to stay and revealed yesterday that he is very happy to play on and try to help the club collect their fourth consecutive Spl title.

Now the speculation has finally been put to bed, Nakamura can concentrate in trying to regain full fitness after playing for the last month with damaged ligaments in his left knee.