Celtic captain Scott Brown has vowed to sustain the form that saw him win the PFA Scotland and Football Writers’ Player of the Year last term.

The Hoops midfielder was Celtic’s outstanding player last season and he is in no mood to slow down after revealing that he went back to the club in better shape after his summer break than he was before it.

And while Brown believes that Celtic will be the team to beat this term he has vowed that the Parkhead side are ready for the fight.

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“My fitness levels are not a problem,” he said. “It’s just a question of avoiding injuries and making sure I keep ticking over every week.

“The games seem to help me, I get stronger and stronger as they go on. Last year I felt great all the way through the season.

“I looked after my body well in the summer and came back in better nick than I was at the end of the year.

“I couldn’t come back much worse than I did a few years back!

“The numbers were similar this year to last year.”

Having made history with Brendan Rodgers, Brown believes that Celtic’s current position of back-to-back treble winners will have teams determined to knock them off their pedestal.

“Everyone is going to be working to be that team to beat us and show they are better than us,” he said. “It’s about how we react this season.

“We start fresh and have to go into it with the same levels, to be even better than we were last year. We believe we have come back in better condition and we are looking sharp already.

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“We’ve had some good results in pre-season and in the Champions League qualifiers already.”

While there is already talk of a potential treble treble among the Celtic support, Brown has cautioned about anyone getting too far ahead of themselves.

Rodgers himself stated this week that it was more important to win an eight title than to think about ten and Brown is reluctant to get overly confident.

“There will be people thinking about that but our immediate aim is to make sure we get into the Champions League,” he said. “We also want a good start in the Premiership and the Betfred Cup.

“The extra round [in the Champions League qualifiers] is also making it harder and harder. Last year we had Rosenborg in the round before the play-offs, so it’s earlier this time and shows you the level of opposition we face.

“It’’s going to get harder. If we get through this round, it will be AEK Athens. I’m sure they will be even better than Rosenborg.”

Meanwhile, Celtic have decided not to appeal the additional suspension that UEFA’s disciplinary body gave to Jozo Simunovic on Friday. The Croatian defender will miss tomorrow night’s second leg, second round qualifier against Rosenborg as he serves the second game of the ban for his dismissal in the first round against Alashkert.

Celtic opted against an appeal after learning UEFA’s full reasoning behind the suspension. Any appeal would have endangered his availability for the potential third round tie against AEK Athens.