CELTIC'S Champions League journey this season has only just ended.

But Parkhead boss Ronny Deila has proclaimed the road to next year's tournament starts NOW.

Following their play-off defeat to NK Maribor midweek, Celtic parachuted into the Europa League where they were yesterday drawn to play Salzburg, Dinamo Zagreb and FC Astra in Group D.

Despite their aspirations to progress in the competition, Deila is aware of how important the Champions League is to the SPFL Premiership holders.

And after admitting his players are currently not good enough to cut it in Europe's elite competition, he revealed he is setting about improving for next year.

He said: "This is a new chapter. We have to prepare the team to do several things - win the league and win trophies, but also make the team ready for the Champions League next year, if we win the league.

"That will make the experience we will get now invaluable.

"There are some good teams there - but I don't know so much about them. It will be exciting.

"You can always think about what might have been. But we weren't good enough, so we take the draw we've got - and look forward to competing in the Europa League.

"Our aim is to get experience, of course, and to try to get through to the next stage. That's something the club has done before but it's a big challenge for us."

The defeat to Maribor was a raw experience for the Parkhead club.

But despite the hangover from Tuesday still being felt, Deila is still firm in his belief his team and preparations were spot-on for the play-off second leg.

He said: "I don't have any regrets. We went into the game with a match plan but the first half was too passive.

"But we didn't want to sit back, we changed after the break and the first 20 minutes of the second half was much more aggressive.

"Look at the two matches, they were quite equal. It went against us. That is also about skills - but I think we improved from the Legia game.

"We were well prepared, had a match plan - and knew what we were going to do if things weren't going well. We made changes that made the team better, we just didn't get a final result."

Speaking about tomorrow's game away to Dundee, he added: "We want to bounce back. It's very important to get back on the pitch and show how good we are and win the league."

The Celtic manager also revealed Aston Villa winger Aleksander Tonev, who joined the club on loan, will start training on Monday, while a medical for striker Stefan Scepovic is imminent.