"They have learned from their mistakes. We're not cattle," says Kris Commons of Celtic's previous pre-season preparations

Thankfully, the days of trains, planes and automobiles appear to have reached the end of the line. Regardless of the club's new tie-in with US sports manufacturers New Balance, Ronny Deila is planning a Spartan staycation of sorts to help the club gear up for the arrival of those mammoth Champions League qualifying matches in July. No-one is more delighted about that fact than Commons.

"The worst season I had was when we went to Australia in pre-season," said Commons. "It felt like I was on a plane for three weeks. It was shocking. I said it at the time - I absolutely hated it. I came back and then just started picking up injuries and fell out the team.

"So I think they have probably realised from past mistakes maybe that we are not cattle and they need to treat us like professional footballers," he added. "I know other teams ferry all their players around but for guys like Emilio [Izaguirre], who is off to places like Miami to play international games, and Efe [Ambrose] who has to fly to Africa to play games, it is just hard work. Sometimes the travelling is harder than the game itself.

"Ronny likes to be on the training field and putting his point across. He wants certain sessions done on certain days to get you mentally right for a game and travelling is a massive inconvenience. The more time you spend on the training park and playing games that put our training practices into motion, that's what he wants. He wants Champions League football and to do that he needs us as fit as possible, as quickly as possible."

While the Antipodean experiment was a one-off, glamour friendlies, such as one against Real Madrid in Philadelphia 12 months later, have been a constant in the club's recent history. It is a chance to earn a tidy appearance fee, and boost the club's global brand, but for Commons it is mainly a chance to pick up injury. "Okay it might be a glamorous tie but for me it is another game for injury risk," he said. "I am not a huge fan of playing in friendlies. Dylan McGeouch nearly got his head taken off in that Real Madrid game. He played probably the best 45 minutes I ever saw him play, then he ends up flying back with half a jaw."

The chance of such mishaps is merely magnified this summer, when rest and recuperation for the likes of Scott Brown, Charlie Mulgrew and James Forrest will almost certainly be curtailed by the involvement in Scotland's meeting with the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on June 13. "The most important games that we play are the first ones - apart from the pre-season friendlies," said Commons. "To play them when we are all healthy, fit and playing well would be ideal but we've not got that luxury."

Commons, last year's 32-goal runaway winner of the PFA Scotland player of the year award, was speaking to promote the launch this year's voting process. In a season which he has personally found himself in and out of Deila's team, he admits ruefully that he hasn't quite lived up to last season's heights. "I'm 25 goals back!" he joked. "There were eight or nine games where I wasn't even involved. I was a bit-part player. But the team was doing well and you have to hold your hands up. Thirty-two goals was great but if I wasn't doing things he wanted and I was more of an inconvenience then he told me to work on certain things. I did that, he recognised it, I got back into the team and scored again and signed a new contract. So all is well."

These votes, decided by Scotland's rank-and-file players and managers, are always ripe with intrigue. Not least is this year's managers award, which Commons feels Deila will win - as long as he can bring home a treble. Jock Stein and Martin O'Neill are the only two Celtic managers to have won all three domestic trophies in one year and Commons thinks the Norwegian will have to join that exalted company if he is to be voted Scotland's best boss.

"If he wins the treble then yes," said Commons. "The year when Neil should have won it - he made it to the last 16 of the Champions League, won the league and the cup, and he still didn't win it - shows you he's going to have to do something remarkable to pick it up. I don't think just a league and cup double would warrant a manager of the year because they always try to find someone else who is doing okay. I've got no idea why. It was the same with young player - which Victor Wanyama didn't win. I think a few votes maybe got lost in the post. If Ronny can produce a treble, not only should he be manager of the year, he'll go down as one of the greatest Celtic managers along with Martin O'Neill and Jock Stein."

Were he not precluded from opting for his team-mates, Craig Gordon would probably get his vote. As he is, he will probably go for Aberdeen's Adam Rooney. He feels it would be "very difficult" for anyone elsewhere in the SPFL to hold down a place at Celtic.

"I can't see anyone coming in and being better than what we have already. We've got some of the best Scottish players plus some incredible international players. I think Nir Bitton has been incredible this year. Last season he was a fringe player but he's gone up a notch. Craig was on the sofa watching telly every week and now he is playing in the San Siro. These are exceptional standards that they have reached in very little time."

Kris Commons, the PFA Scotland player of the year, was speaking to launch the voting for the PFA Scotland Player of the Year award for 2015 - sponsored by Cheque Centre