Celtic captain aims to keep winning titles

Celtic captain Scott Brown has vowed to take the club to seven Premiership titles in a row.

The midfielder said the Hoops are in no mood to relinquish their grip at the top, even as Rangers return to the top flight looking to push them hard having won last week's Old Firm Scottish Cup semi-final.

"Of course they will, but we're not giving up our league titles now," Brown said.

"And as I say, we are going for five in a row now and we want to continue it, we want to get six and seven."

Much has been made of Celtic's squad, not least by disgruntled fans unhappy with the team's inability to get into the Champions League, and the manner in which it has been developed over the last two years.

But Brown rejected criticism and backed his team-mates to push on.

"We believe we've got the players in that dressing room that can do that and we've just got to put a lot of faith and trust in ourselves and express a lot more than we have been doing in recent weeks," he said.

"We know we have let ourselves down in the last couple of weeks.

"Football's a game of chances, you get so many more chances to bounce back and hopefully it's this week that does it for us."

Norwegian Ronny Deila announced on Wednesday that he would be leaving at the end of the campaign. His resignation came after the dramatic penalty shoot-out loss to the Gers at Hampden Park.

He has not said whether it was the catalyst but much of the criticism directed at the outgoing manager has been due to his failure in Europe.

Hibernian and Falkirk are among the teams in contention to join Rangers in next season's Premiership, via the play-offs, and Brown warned: "It's going to be an interesting league next year.

"It's going to be a lot better than it has been in the last couple of years, yet again you can only win against the teams that are in the league and that's what we've been doing."

Brown was in Dublin to promote the International Champions Cup.

The global pre-season competition will pit Celtic against Barcelona in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on July 30.

Played in the United States, China and Australia - as well as Dublin, Glasgow and Stockholm this summer - it brings some of Europe's top clubs to a new audience.

Other clubs taking part in the friendlies are Premier League title favourites Leicester, along with Champions League regulars Inter Milan, Paris St Germain, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, AC Milan and Liverpool.