Celtic assistant boss John Collins celebrates title win

Celtic assistant manager John Collins praised his squad after the Hoops clinched their fourth Scottish title in a row – but also insisted that he would like to see the return of Glasgow rivals Rangers to the top flight next season.

Aberdeen’s 1 -0 defeat at Dundee United ended their slim chances of catching Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership with three games left to play.

And Collins said his players deserve to revel in their latest title win, but thinks it would be good for Scottish football if the Rangers and Celtic derby was reignited sooner rather than later, even if some fans may disagree.

He told Sky Sports News HQ: “There will be celebrations – obviously we’re delighted. We’ve been playing ever so well in recent weeks, scoring lots of goals, playing entertaining football.

“Dundee United did us a favour. Finally, it’s great news to get the title in the bag."

Asked what the feeling in Glasgow would be about the possible return of Rangers to the top flight, he said: “It will be mixed, I think. If you ask me I’d like to have Rangers back in the SPFL; it would be good for us and good for Scottish football.

"They’ve got to get through the play-offs. They’ve got some tough games coming up but I think we need them back, yes.”

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Despite clinching the title, Celtic players and fans will be disappointed they missed out on a domestic treble after losing out to Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup last month.

Collins insists the management team have been delighted with the side’s response to that disappointment in he and Ronny Deila’s first season in charge at Parkhead.  

He said: “We would have taken it at the start of the season. We wanted the treble, we were very close but it wasn’t to be. We look forward to next season and the target will be the treble.

“We were disappointed but in football you have to get over disappointment very quickly. We have been doing that and doing it in style.”

With the title now wrapped up, Collins said the focus could switch to assembling a squad that was capable making an assault on the group stages of the Champions League.

While aiming to keep the majority of this title-winning squad together, Collins admitted that the club were always looking for the players to take the team forward.

“We’d love to keep the nucleus of the squad together, no doubt about that,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of quality in the squad but it would be nice to add to it. Again – it’s all about quality.

“We’re looking, like every other club and every other manager.

“We’ve got three games now until the end of the season. We’ll get those out of the way. Then it’s pre-season and then every knows the Champions League is massive for Celtic Football Club.

“We want to be in there. We’ve got the three qualifying rounds to go through and we’ve got to be prepared for that. We will be. The break is very short – the players will have a few weeks holiday and then we’ll be back into it.”