WHEN Joe Ledley confesses that he and his Celtic team-mates are setting their sights on progressing to the last 16 of the Champions League, you realise a new season with new ambition and hope is indeed upon us.

The cynics might suggest that setting the bar in Europe is all that is left to Neil Lennon's side, given the fact the upcoming Clydesdale Bank Premier League already appears to be a one-horse race, with Rangers about to be tethered to the lower leagues. However, Ledley is adamant the ambition he is showing towards success in Europe's premier competition has nothing to do with the problems bedevilling their rivals. Rather, it is borne of the confidence gained from last season's Europa League sorte in which they performed well against Rennes, Udinese and, the eventual winners, Athletico Madrid.

The Welshman and his team-mates begin the build up to their opening Champions League qualifying tie at the end of this month in Germany tonight when they play Bundesliga side, Augsburg. Ledley is happy to be up and running again, and, despite the turmoil in which Scottish football has been immersed since Celtic were crowned champions in May, he is eagerly anticipating whatever is about to come their way.

"It's always going to be hard making the leap from Premier League games to Champions League as you are playing against some of the best players in the world," he said. "We just want to go out and show what a group of players like us can do. It's a young squad, although I felt we dealt with last season well and got some great results. We would love to get beyond the group stages, but, first, we need to get there. It's going to be difficult as there will be good teams in the qualifiers. Our aim is to get into the group stages. If we can get beyond that, it would be an honour."

The events surrounding Rangers this summer serve to confirm Ledley's theory that anything can indeed happen in this game. The competitive edge which will disappear from the championship with the Ibrox club's demotion makes Europe an even more important playing field for everyone connected with the Parkhead club, not least those counting the pennies.

However, Ledley had prioritised returning Celtic to a competitive position among the Continent's elite irrespective of what was happening at home. "Qualifying for the Champions League is massive for us," he added. "It would still have been like that, even if Rangers were still in the league. As players, you just want to get to that stage. It's a fantastic tournament. We gained a lot from the Europa League campaign. We enjoyed it, even though we had an extremely difficult group. I felt we did well."

After crashing out of both the Champions League and Europa League qualifiers before August had passed in Ledley's first season at the club, courtesy of painful defeats to Braga and Utrecht, and being given a reprieve last year only because of Sion falling foul of Fifa and Uefa over a transfer embargo, harsh lessons have been learned by Lennon and his players.

Ledley is confident the professional approach he and his team-mates have applied to their summer break will help them hit the ground running, and the incentive of successfully negotiating the qualifiers has made any holiday sacrifice worthwhile.

"You've got to keep yourself fit," said the 25-year-old midfielder. "You'd quickly be found out if you came back out of shape. We had the testing in the first couple of days. Some of the boys are in better shape then when they left. Kris Commons looks terrific. His testing was fantastic compared to the end of last season. Everyone has beaten their fitness levels for the end of last season, so we're all in good shape.

"The qualifiers come around quite early, so it's down to us to get our fitness levels up and get as many games in before the real stuff starts. We need to be fitter and faster than last season and, hopefully, qualify for the group stages."

Over the last few summers, Celtic have attempted to bed in a host of new players when the Euro qualifiers have come around. This year, a clutch of men have left, but Lennon plans to make only two or three additions. Ledley believes this will aid continuity.

"When I first signed, a lot of players had just left and others were coming in," said the man who arrived on a Bosman from Cardiff City in 2010. "It took a while for us to gel. Last year, the gaffer largely kept the same bunch and brought a few more in – he's doing the same this year. The squad is fantastic."

Without the challenge of Rangers, the bookmakers have already decided the outcome of next season's title race is a foregone conclusion.

Ledley, however, insisted: "It's still going to be difficult. You can never predict what's going to happen. We didn't know what to expect with Rangers. I didn't really follow the events. I still don't know all that much about what happened. We just concentrate on our club, but . . . everyone knows that if you break the rules, you're going to have to face the consequences. We just want to get on with things, work hard and hopefully get into the Champions League."