Deila already looking forward
Celtic will celebrate their Scottish Premiership title success on Sunday but manager Ronny Deila's excitement will be focused on their future potential rather than the achievements of the past 10 months.
The Hoops will receive the trophy for a fourth consecutive season following the Parkhead clash with Inverness.
Deila's thoughts will quickly turn to preparations for the Champions League qualifying task in mid-July after his side failed in last season's attempt during his first weeks in the job.
And the progress since those difficult early days of the Norwegian's reign has been the one thing that has pleased Deila the most.
"It's so hard to say what the one thing is," he said. "We have had many highlights, the Inter Milan game, the Rangers game, winning the league.
"But most of all... just the progress. You can see the team is going the right way all the time. That gives me a good feeling. To see the team is growing, individually and as a unit, that's the best feeling I can get.
"Also now that we are sitting in a good foundation for what's coming up in front of us, that people are interested and excited about what's happening."
Deila led Stromsgodset to the Norwegian title in 2013 and he will savour the trophy landed in his first year in Scotland.
"I have looked forward to it for a long, long time for many reasons," the 39-year-old said.
"One, we have achieved our goal of winning the league; two, we are going to celebrate that with our fans and I know it's a special day at Celtic Park; and three, we have a holiday afterwards.
"We always want to perform and hate to lose and show a bad side. We want to keep on winning games and people are up for it."
Inverness will give Celtic a guard of honour on Sunday and then get "stuck in about them" according to boss John Hughes.
A possible trophy treble would have been on the cards had Deila's side not been knocked out of the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final after extra-time by Caley Thistle, who go into the game with one eye on next week's final against Falkirk at Hampden Park.
Hughes admits he has a selection dilemma and is looking to leave Celtic Park "injury-free and nothing stupid in terms of red cards".
However, he will begin the afternoon by paying due respect to his former club before competing in the usual manner.
Hughes said: "We will give them their guard of honour for the simple reason that they are the best team in the league.
"They have the best team, the best stadium and the best supporters.
"They play great football and have a great management team, who have done a wonderful job.
"Although when we compete against them we get stuck in about them and we have done okay against them, you still have to respect that kind of quality.
"And when it starts, we will see what happens. You are playing for a lot of pride and there are still cup final places up for grabs, so we will see how it goes.
"Celtic are in party mode and they will want to go to town.
"But even if they weren't in party mode, they want to do the business.
"I have played for Celtic and I know what it means. They will want to finish on a high.
"They will put their best team out and we will do the best we can and see if we can take the game to them."
Source: PAR
