CRAIG GORDON has welcomed Celtic boss Ronny Deila's determination to get defensive talent in quickly ahead of the Champions League qualifiers - and reckons Dedryck Boyata will fill the gap left by Jason Denayer with the minimum of fuss.

Deila captured Boyata from Manchester City on a four-year deal before returning to Norway on holiday and is continuing to push hard to snap up new talent with the club still in the frame for Dutch left-back Mitchell Dijks after slapping in a £1.6m bid last month.

Gordon realises the importance of strengthening existing relationships and building new ones at the back ahead of the Hoops' bid to return to the group stages of European football's premier club competition.

Three tough ties lie ahead and bringing new faces in quickly is essential.

Denayer has returned to Manchester City following the end of a successful year-long loan and Gordon is happy that his replacement has already been signed and sealed for the start of pre-season training later this month.

"Last season, we had a fantastic understanding between Virgil van Dijk, Jason and me and it was really enjoyable going out there and playing with them," said the Celtic goalkeeper.

"We really understood what everyone was going to do most of the time.

"I think it is important to have that in those areas.

"We have a new defender coming in and it will take a little bit of time for him to bed in, but he is a top quality player. He has been at Manchester City and that hints at his pedigree.

"When you get good players in, it is a little bit easier to see what their strengths are and really form that relationship quite quickly."

Celtic have already stated that they are not interested in selling Van Dijk ahead of the qualifying rounds of the Champions League despite reported interest from England, but it remains to be seen how they will react should a concrete offer come in.

Gordon concedes that he has no unique insight into Van Dijk's desires for the season ahead, but he would love to have the 23-year-old Dutchman standing in front of him when the journey towards the promised land of the Champions League begins next month.

"I hope he will stay because I enjoy playing behind him," stated Gordon. "He is a great centre-half, but I don't know what the situation is there. I have no idea what he is thinking."

Gordon remains haunted by last season's failure to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League after being given a controversial second bite at the cherry.

Celts, of course, lost 6-1 on aggregate to Legia Warsaw before the Poles were punished for fielding an ineligible player by having their 2-0 victory at Murrayfield changed to a 3-0 loss by Uefa.

Deila's men progressed by virtue of the away goals rule to a play-off against Maribor and, with Gordon installed in the side in place of Fraser Forster following his £10m move to Southampton, blew it after earning a 1-1 draw in Slovenia when going down 1-0 at Parkhead.

The former Hearts No.1 has no doubt in his mind that Deila's side are a much more accomplished outfit than they were on that disastrous night last August and believes they learned lessons in making it through their Europa League group later in the campaign that can be used to their benefit in Europe this time round.

"We probably should have beaten Maribor," he said. "We had the chances to do it and we didn't take them before being caught with a goal at home.

"If we'd been playing then the way we did in the second half of the season, I am sure we would have been able to put in a better performance and win that one.

"As it was, I felt we should probably have won it anyway. We didn't capitalise on a lot of chances we had over there and got caught out.

"Qualifying from the Europa League was still a decent achievement, though, and we could have gone a little further.

"I hope we have learned from the experience and can all go and try to go one better in the new season."

Gordon has set his sights on completing a very special double by getting Celtic back into the Champions League and helping Scotland make it to their first major finals tournament since the World Cup in France in 1998.

The 32-year-old played the second 45 in last Friday night's 1-0 win over Qatar at Easter Road, making one important save during his time on the pitch.

David Marshall remains favourite to start in Sunday's Euro 2016 Group D crunch against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin, but Gordon admits it is a joy to even be in contention for a place following the nightmare run of injuries that kept him out of football for two years before he signed for Celtic last summer.

"It is great to get back to this level and push to get a start in the next match," he said.

"I was happy with what I had to do when I came on against Qatar and all I can do is keep knocking at the door to try to play in some of the big games.

"I didn't always believe I would get back to this stage. I knew there was a possibility that it might not happen for many reasons.

"I probably didn't think it would come around so quickly, but the fact I started playing a lot of games straight away last season helped me."