The bulk of Brendan Rodgers’ side will report back to Lennoxtown this morning for the start of pre-season training.

A hectic summer of UEFA Champions League qualifiers awaits and will those who went on international duty will have a few further days to recuperate, there has been little respite since the Scottish Cup win at the end of May.

However, pleasingly for Brendan Rodgers, it is a full squad that is expected to assemble by the end of this week in anticipation of the club’s pre-season trip to Austria next Monday.

There has been widespread interest in Moussa Dembele – Everton are the latest to be linked with the French striker – while Manchester United have been credited again with an interest in 20-year-old Kieran Tierney.

Sources within Celtic maintain that neither player is for sale and neither has there been any formal offer, while there was also a dismissal from the Parkhead side regarding a quoted bid for Jean-Kevin Duverne.

Respected French newspaper L’Equipe claimed that Celtic had submitted a £5m for the 19-year-old Lens defender, a report that seems to be wide of the mark.

Duverne has been watched by Celtic and attracted their interest before the January window but they claim to have made no bid for the teenager.

Meanwhile, Tom Boyd believes that Celtic are better positioned this term to quality for the group stages than they were this time a year ago when Brendan Rodgers had just arrived at the club.

However, having dominated the domestic landscape, Boyd anticipates that Rodgers will want to deliver a successful campaign against Europe’s elite this time around.

“It is the impact of Brendan,” said Boyd. “He is here and just starting it and I think what he wants is the team competing in the Champions League. We got better as it went on last season and we learned a lot and that certainly improved us.

“The club should be better prepared to get there now. As long as we don’t get that section again – there was some decent teams in there.”

And while Celtic are fending off interest in Dembele and Tierney, there will also be those who fear that Rodgers could be enticed away from the club.

The Celtic manager signed a four-year extension to his Hoops contract in April, an indication to Boyd that he is here for the long-term.

“I would like him to sign another 10 after that and see where he takes us,” he said. “If he gets to that why would he want to go anywhere else? He has transformed the club and it is the level of performances as well.

“He has his own challenges here. There are demands to win every game here and he is doing that. He is bringing boys in who have shown what they have got on the park and he has improved the ones who are already here. Everything he has touched is turning to gold.”