TOM BOYD, the former Celtic captain, has told Rangers chairman Dave King that the Ibrox club have no chance of near challenging for the title in the immediate future.

King had claimed that he could take Rangers into the SPFL Premiership to push Celtic for the title in the next two years, but Boyd has dismissed the claims. Football financial experts have warned that it will take at least five years for the gap to be bridged between the two sides and, with Celtic hunting down a UEFA Champions League group place, the disparity in finances between the two teams can be expected to widen.

"I'll say no," said Boyd, when asked whether or not King's assertions were credible. "I'll leave it at that in my opinion, no. Look at where Celtic are just now and where Rangers are. There is a massive gap and it will take a right good few years to bridge that.

"[If you get into the Champions League] You can then get better players and I don't see that over the other side just now. I don't see how you can attract better players to the Championship unless you are doing what you did previously and that is paying [players] over the odds. That is the only way they will go to play Championship football. It didn't work out for them before and it will need to be a different strategy unless they are buying in lesser quality players. No, my take on it is that it will take a right good few years before they even come close."

Boyd - the last Celtic captain to have claimed a domestic Treble - went further by saying he does not believe that the absence of Rangers in the top flight has detracted from Celtic's season. Rangers missed out on promotion after Motherwell presided over them in the play-off final with an aggregate 6-1 victory, putting paid to any notion that the Old Firm fixture would return to the league calendar next season.

Boyd, though, is insistent that his old club's main focus lies in mixing it with football's elite in the prestigious company of the Champions League. Celtic's summer has been geared exclusively to the demands of the qualifying games even to the extent that, for the first time in decades, they have opted against travelling in order that there is no hangover from different time zones.

"They need the Champions League money at this moment in time. They certainly need competition which I think they got to a degree from Aberdeen last season but more importantly where Celtic are they need to get in to play against the best teams in Europe and keep the challenge of that alive and hopefully then go beyond the group stages. That certainly is more of an attraction just now than playing Rangers at this moment in time."

And Boyd expects that if Celtic were to guarantee six games in the Champions League stages by successfully negotiating the group stages that the carrot to entice future signings is a significant one. Given the financial disparity between Scottish clubs and even Sky Bet Championship teams, the incentive of playing against Europe's best could be a key factor in negotiating talks.

"The key change last season was Jason Denayer. It is how we can push this football club and show that we can get players international games which previously guys would say that if you played in the Scottish league you would ruin your international chances. That has just been kyboshed. The attraction of getting to the Champions League proper is playing the best teams in the world. We let ourselves down, there were a lot of reasons for that, last season but we are certainly in a much better position now than what we were then."

Tom Boyd was speaking on behalf of the Celtic FC Foundation which has donated £7000 to the Glasgow taxis' Outing fund for sick children. The trip takes place on Wednesday 17th June.