Kris Commons, the Celtic midfielder, has claimed that the current Parkhead squad is better than Neil Lennon's Celtic side which got to the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League two seasons ago.

 

Ronny Deila's side clinched their fourth successive league title on Saturday afternoon when Aberdeen failed to beat Dundee United.

Arithmetically, the Pittodrie side can no longer catch Celtic but amid the celebrations, Commons was already mindful of the UEFA Champions League qualifiers that come when the new season will still be in its embryonic stage.

Yet, not only does Commons expect that Celtic have sufficient quality to make it into the lucrative group stages of Europe's premier competition, he has intimidated that the squad is as strong as that which Lennon led to an unprecedented 10-points in the group stages of the competition, from where they qualified for the latter stages.

"I think the squad is good enough to get into the Champions league. I think this is a better squad than when we got to the last 16 two seasons ago," said Commons. It is quite a declaration; Lennon's team prevailed against Barcelona, Benfica and Spartak Moscow.

Last summer's debacle against Legia Warsaw and the limp display following their reprieve against Maribor did not inspire confidence. Additionally, consideration ought to be paid to the players who wielded considerable influence throughout that 2012-13 campaign.

Fraser Forster, Victor Wanyama, Kelvin Wilson and Gary Hooper raised the combined sum of £30m when they were subsequently sold by Celtic. Georgias Samaras was described as the type of player who could "get a manager sacked" such was his tendency to frustrate but he reserved his finest hours in a Celtic shirt for the European adventures.

Commons, who was part of that team, maintains that the current group measures up.

"Man for man if you look through the squad then we still have a huge amount of talent in this dressing-room despite losing a lot of big players and top professionals," he said. "I still think we're in a very good place. The fine line of playing at the top level is that all 11 need to be at that level. We can't have six or seven playing well and the others not quite at it.

"If we have everyone at it then we can match anyone in Europe. We have proved that."

The timing of the qualifying games will never suit any Scottish side, unless the football calendar changes considerably, but Commons expects that the preparations for such critical matches will be far smoother this summer.

Deila may be in the position of having to introduce an entirely new central defensive pairing should Virgil van Dijk and Jason Denayer leave the club at the end of the season but even the upheaval of that cannot be compared to the significant cultural shift that took place last season at the club when Lennon left and Deila arrived.

"We are in a better place than we were last year," said Commons. "We haven't got a new manager, we have not got as new backroom staff and there is nothing that has changed a great deal. Hopefully the full squad will be together and we know what is required from each player to make us better and we know what is required to play at that level.

"Last year there were too many things that went against us. A new manager with new players and new backroom staff was trying to do things all at once and it was all just too soon."

For all that Commons expects Celtic to be playing their trade alongside Europe's elite, he would grudgingly accept a prolonged run in the Europa League should the qualifiers prove too difficult to negotiate.

However, he has warned that failure to make an impression on the European scene is unacceptable for a club of Celtic's stature. "We need to be in Europe," he warned. "The Champions League is the cream of the crop. If we went on a really good run in the Europa League people would look back and say 'I think they done really well there' but you can't get knocked out of the Champions League and not have a good run in the Europa League.

"I don't think it is acceptable. We came up against a good Inter Milan side and if we had beaten them and gone on again people would have said 'yeah, they are starting to improve and they are getting better.'

"Everyone will be trying to come back as fit as they can be and give of their best in pre-season to show the manager 'hey, I want to be in your starting eleven. We're better with me in the team'.

"Ultimately though it's not about myself or any individual. We are trying to make the team better be it coming off the bench or being a bit player.

"If we get Champions League football I don't think there will be an unhappy player even if they are on the bench."