Ronny Deila looks to Scott Brown and Charlie Mulgrew double act to spearhead Celtic progress on European stage

Mulgrew emerged from a five-month rehabilitation programme this weekend as he looks to put his injury nightmare behind him.

Deila's preparatory work for the July Uefa Champions League qualifiers has been underway for quite some time already and he has acknowledged that knowing for sure that he can bank on Brown and Mulgrew being fit and available is massive.

Brown missed out on last summer's debacle through injury and his loss was hugely significant.

"They bring experience and they bring quality," said Deila. "Both Scott and Charlie are leaders in the dressing room. They are big characters. They help the place to have a good atmosphere and they are always joking around.

"But it is more than that too. They are very good on the training pitch. They work hard, they train hard, they are prepared to give 100 per cent and those same qualities are shown every time they play. They are an example to the other players with the way they approach training and games.

"Having both of them in the team is something that we had only for a short time this season.

"We are a stronger team with them in it.

"It was so important for us that we got Charlie back before the end of the season. We had to be careful because we did not want to push him too early and then find that he was set-back.

"So we had to be very careful with our timing but it has been big to get him some games before the end of the season.

"He will work hard over the summer. He will have a programme to follow and it means that when he comes back he should be at the same level as everyone else."

Deila watched his side draw 0-0 at Perth on Friday night and while he was disappointed not to have made it to the end of the season having taken maximum points from all remaining games, he was keen to play up the positives from the evening.

He did, though, concede that the changes he made - there were six changes to his starting XI - were disruptive to the fluency of his side.

"What did I learn from it?" he said. "I think I got what I knew we were going to get. It was a really offensive team because we had so many forward players in there.

"The quality was up and down. When you change so much there is a lack of relations because you are playing with players who don't often feature together in those roles but there were things that we had wanted to look at.

"I have lots of thoughts on next season. I still want to bring players in but as important as that is keeping the players that we have."

Deila will offer some players time off this week, especially those who are going to be involved in international football once the curtain has come down on the season.

There are a number of players who have put in more than 50 appearances for the club this season and he wants them to return at the end of next month refreshed and ready to go again.

"It is always a balance," he said. "You want players to be fit and sharp but also you do not want them to be too tired. They need to switch off from football, mentally as well as physically."

This week is all about the preparations for the party as Celtic look forward to the title presentation on Sunday. Inverness Caledonian Thistle are at Celtic Park as Deila looks to sign off the season on a winning note before enjoying the celebrations.

While he has admitted that it is not as frantic and wild a party as one in which a title is won under unexpected circumstances, as it was during his time at Stromsgodset, he is nevertheless enthusiastic about the prospect of lifting the title in front of a packed Celtic Park.

However, he has urged his players to savour the moment since he believes they are due some credit for the manner in which they turned things around this season after a turbulent start to the season.

"I will enjoy it," he said. "But it is for the players. They put the hard work in. From Christmas we have been very consistent and that comes down to doing the right things on the park and off it. We feel that we have made big improvements.

"But we still want to get better. We still believe that we can be better. We can score more goals, we can be more consistent, we can defend better. But that is for later.

"It is also important, I think, to enjoy the results too. At this club we are always going forward, always looking at what is next.

"On times like these it is nice for the players to be able to stop and enjoy what they have achieved.

"They can celebrate as a team and then go away for a break and hopefully we will have them back and ready to challenge again.

"They will all have a file on what we want from them and what we want them to do over the summer."