NEIL LENNON believes the Europa League could be the making of Ronny Deila’s Celtic if they can reach the latter rounds of the competition.

The former Parkhead boss has sympathy for his predecessor who suffered the deeply disappointing defeat in Malmo which ended his dreams of taking part in the Champions League.

Deila, his critics say, has failed twice where it really matters for Celtic and only a prolonged run in Europe's second tier tournament will be enough for him to win back those who remain unsure about the Norwegian.

Lennon, however, can see light at the end of the tunnel and points to how much his team learned from their few months in the Europa League, and that those lessons helped them the very next season to beat Barcelona and progress to the last 16.

Lennon said: "Celtic have Ajax, Fenerbahce and Molde are no mugs either. So, yeah, the group is mouth-watering. It will be good for Ronny and the players.

“Maybe they are just a little bit short of the Champions League at the moment because basically over the last there or four years they have sold their best players to keep the economic side of things going.

“So maybe that will be a good yardstick for building for next season – and hopefully for the Champions League.

“I found the Europa League beneficial for the Champions League. We had Udinese and Athletico Madrid, Rennes and that was a very good group.

“And you could start seeing the fruits of what was to come that year against those teams.

“Udinese were one of the top teams in Italy and I think Athletico Madrid went on to win it that year.

“So that was an excellent building process, if that’s what you want to call it, for what was to come the following year."

Lennon hated the qualifiers even when Celtic did get through. Deila must despise them right now.

Martin O'Neill's team famously came up short and didn't make the Champions League, only to them embark on the road to Seville.

That Celtic side is much stronger than the one Deila has, but nevertheless the current manager has to make it at least out of the group.

Lennon said: "Look, it’s always difficult to qualify.

"In 2003 we got knocked out by Basel and went on to the UEFA Cup final. Whether this team can go on and do that I don’t know. But you can go on and make a run at it.

“It just adds to the experience that they’ll get playing against the quality of sides they’ll come up against.

“And it’s a group that Ronny and the players will think they can get out of.

“Ajax maybe aren’t as strong as they were, Fenerbache have spent a bit of money and Molde are certainly beatable home and away.”

Lennon confirmed that he had wanted Anthony Stokes to join him at Bolton Wanderers.

He said: "We made an enquiry for Anthony but the club weren’t prepared to let him out.

“Stefan Scepovic has gone so maybe they feel they need him around and he’ll feature a little bit more.

“We want to bring one more striker in and Anthony was one we looked at, but we couldn’t get it done.”

Moyes said: “There’s no need to feel depressed. Gordon has done a great job and the team have given us a great chance.

“Obviously there’s disappointment from Friday. Maybe people took it for granted we would win the game. We have a tendency to do that here.

“But it’s hard to win these games in international football. Let’s hope we can pull off a very Scottish thing to do and beat the world champions.

“You never know.

“It will be very difficult, of course it will be. But Scotland teams have done it in the past and could do this time.

“What I would say is we shouldn’t be too down about Georgia. We have got in to a position and want to qualify. It is still there for us.

“Gordon’s done a great job so far so you don’t want to put them under too much pressure.”