Strachan aiming to beef up Bhoys for Europe

GORDON STRACHAN has warned the Celtic board that his title-winning squad is not good enough for the Champions League.

The Bank of Scotland Premier League winners will have to wait to see if they go straight into the group stages or have to take on a potentially hazardous qualifying round.

But, despite securing summer moves for Kenny Miller and Gary Caldwell on Bosman frees, the Celtic manager insists more reinforcements are needed for them to have a crack at the big time.

Strachan said: "Hopefully, we will have a lot more names in the squad because it needs to be bigger than we have now."

There are also suggestions the Scot could lose some of his top championship-winning stars during the summer.

Roy Keane and John Hartson have hinted at leaving Parkhead at the end of the season while there have been conflicting reports surrounding the future of Shunsuke Nakamura.

Strachan insists he does not want any of his major men to leave but admits that everyone has a price.

"There is nothing I can do if a player wants to go," shrugged the double-winning Hoops boss.

"If a player says he wants to go and somebody puts in an offer we can't refuse then everybody is for sale.

"There are a couple of younger players we want to send out on loan but at the moment we want to keep the rest.

"Naka has not said anything to me about leaving."

Strachan plans to sit down with Hartson, who has expressed his desire to move closer to his children Rebeca and Joni after the break-up of his marriage earlier this year.

"If players feel their futures lie elsewhere, I can't do anything about that. In a way I am sympathetic. But we make our beds and we all have to lie in it. It's a big bed where John's concerned.

"We would need to take all those things into consideration.

"We will look at what John wants to do and I will need to sit down with him."

Strachan is looking to next season and is rooting for Barcelona and AC Milan to win the Champions League as their success is likely to mean Celtic will go straight into the group stages of the Champions League.

He added: "Financially that would help.

"It will dictate what we want to do pre-season and budgets could be changed by one game we are not involved in."

Strachan also insists celebrating the championship with the supporters, following their victory over Hearts on Wednesday, means more to him than winning any manager of the year award.

The Celtic boss is believed to be battling it out with Sunday's opponent Kilmarnock chief Jim Jefferies for the football writers' top prize but he claims not to care less about the accolade.

"I have not even had a manager of the month," he smiled. "I am very pleased to be mentioned.