Ronny Deila, the Celtic manager, will urge Patrick Roberts to favour club over country this summer as the Parkhead side seek to consolidate a place in the UEFA Champions League group stages.

The 19-year-old has a decision to make as he is expected to represent England in the under-19 European Championships in Germany at the same time as Celtic are beginning the qualification process to make it into the group stages of Europe’s elite competition. It is a quest they have failed to complete in their last two attempts.

The under-19 European Championships kick off on 11th July, with the final being played on the 24th. Celtic will anticipate their first qualifier taking place on the 12th or 13th of July with just seven days between the two legs. If they successfully negotiate that game then would take them into the third qualifying round which would be played on either the 26th or 27th July.

Roberts, on-loan from Manchester City until next summer, will have the definitive say in where he plays since the FIFA rules that give international football precedence at senior level are not so rigid at youth level.

“It’s something we have to look into,” said Deila. “The most important thing is Patrick’s development. He has played a lot of youth football in his life but he has not played a lot of first team football, so it should be simple but you never know in football.

“Our preference, of course, is that he will be with us. We will try to make that happen. It is very important and it is one of the reasons why we brought him here - because he is a very good player but also because these games are vital for us.”

Roberts himself was non-committal on the matter. “They’ve got to decide that between themselves,” said the winger. “I can’t have any say in that really. I’m happy to play for my country and to play for Celtic. Either way I’m happy.”

Meanwhile, Deila has placed metaphorical hands over his ears this week as he shut out all talk of Rangers in order to focus fully on getting the Parkhead side over the line to clinch the Ladbrokes Premier League.

The build-up to next weekend’s Hampden meeting with Rangers has been magnified in the wake of the Ibrox side’s Championship celebrations this week, with the Cup clash billed as a prelude to what will come next season.

“Whatever you say, the league is the most important thing,” he said. “We want to get into the Champions League and we have fought so long for this and have got ourselves into a good position.

“With this status in the league, it is not problem to keep our focus on this game. That’s the most important thing right now. I haven’t read about it [Rangers] and I actually don’t care about it right now. I know this is a big thing for everybody in Glasgow and Scotland - it’s a big game - but for me, the focus is on Motherwell and that’s the most important thing right now. Today, that is not in my head. In my head is Motherwell.”

Deila also backed his top scorer, Leigh Griffiths, and club captain Scott Brown. The former has not scored in his last three league outings while the latter has never quite found his form since returning to the team following a three-month absence due to a knee injury.

The criticism of Griffiths, who has scored 35 goals in all competitions this season, could also question Deila’s favoured system of one lone striker, a formation that heavily relies on one goalscorer. The Norwegian was defensive of both.

“The system we play is the same system of 75% of teams in the world,” explained Deila. “It is not about one guy. It is about the position as well and we play in a way that the striker will always get chances. If it is Leigh or Colin [Kazim-Richards] or whoever then he will get chances and score goals. Leigh has been very good for us and hopefully he will keep on being good for us – I am quite confidence about that.

“We need others to score goals, that is important. But it is two games since we had a winger scoring two and a winger scoring one so we have players who can do it

“Scott has been out for three months and now has played a lot of games lately. He is going in the right direction and it is tough to be out for as long as he was and then go straight back in. “On the ball he can be even more braver and get forward but defensively he is very good for us – he is always taking out the right spaces and he plays an important role for us.”

Danish defender Erik Sviatchenko will miss the game against Motherwell with a grade 1 tear in his thigh, however Mikael Lustig and Tom Rogic are fit to play at lunchtime today.