CLAUS LUNDEKVAM's first choice, when it comes to his testimonial match, has always been to play against the mighty Glasgow Celtic.

Whilst there have been one or two functions already for Claus, he has put off the game itself because he wanted to see if a Celtic fixture was a possibility.

And Gordon Strachan, their manager, held Claus in such high esteem as a player and a man that he has promised to bring the team.

I can tell you from personal experience when we did a similar thing for dear old George Horsfell, one of our coaching staff in old days with Glasgow Rangers, how difficult it is to get these Scottish giants to play this sort of game.

Glasgow Celtic for instance are off to Asia at the end of the season to play games which will bring them in a massive amount of money such is their popularity all around the world.

The difficulty for Claus was that because of the Bon Jovi concert the groundstaff at St Mary's would not normally have the time they would normally want to prepare the pitch for a testimonial game ahead of the new season.

However, arrangements have now been put in place to make everything possible and a date has been fixed for pre-season and will be announced shortly.

I am so pleased for Claus who deserves to have a full house on the day and all credit to Gordon Strachan for making this possible.

Believe me as soon as the tickets go on sale I would recommend people to get them because the number of Scottish supporters that will follow Celtic down and those ex-patriots living in the area will want to be first in the queue.

Claus is the epitome of the one-club man who are so rare to find these days.

The sad bit of it all is of course after battling bravely to get over injuries this season he broke down just as he was nearly back to match fitness and needed an operation which has effectively finished his career.

I can tell you he is feeling very down at present and I don't think it has really struck home that he will not be able to pull on the shirt again so I would urge everyone to take the opportunity to thank Claus for everything he has done for the club on and off the field and Graeme Souness should be thanked as well for bringing him here in the first place.

To read all of Lawrie McMenemy's exclusive column, don't miss today's Daily Echo.