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Deila makes special plans for Brown’s Champions League bid

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Image for Deila makes special plans for Brown’s Champions League bid

BrownRonny Deila wants a fully fit Scott Brown to lead Celtic into the group stage of the Champions League.

A year ago the Celtic midfielder pulled up with a hamstring strain just minutes into the pre-season friendly with Rapid Vienna.

Brown cut a frustrated figure watching from the sidelines as Celtic crashed out of the Champions League but proved pivotal as Deila’s fortunes were turned around.

One of the iconic moments of last season was the midfielder’s goal at Pittodrie when he stopped a move on the edge of his own penalty area before running the length of the pitch to score the only goal of the game.

That match was technically meaningless but with the stakes at their highest over the coming weeks Deila will ensure that his skipper is in perfect condition for the qualifiers that will shape Celtic’s season.

Scott has been injured in the last two years so we have to try to do things differently with him in the pre-season because he is an important players for us and we need him on the pitch,” the Norwegian said.

It is very important for us that he is ready for the big matches. Was he the difference last season? Of course – maybe not against Legia Warsaw but Maribor was a tie of small margins and Brown is an important player. When he came back in the team he made a big impact.”

Brown will rejoin the Celtic squad this week for pre-season training with the first match of the season coming on Wednesday against Dutch side Den Bosch.

As he prepares his internationalists for a return to action the three friendlies at St Mirren are likely to see some of Celtic’s youngest players given the chance of top team action.

Kieran Tierney, Aiden Nesbit, Joe Thomson, Paul McMullan and Luke Donnelly will be involved as Deila assesses their progress at the same time as putting his plans in place to tackle Stjarnan in two weeks time.

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