Johan Mjallby and Alan Thompson talking a defensive game

It is natural for these two members of manager Neil Lennon's backroom staff to draw on the glittering period in which they played when searching for instructive parallels to the present. What Thompson picks up on is the fact that testing pre-seasons such as that which an extensively recast Celtic squad have strained their way through this summer didn't tend to be harbingers of what then ensued.

As they prepare to face Blackburn in their final warm-up encounter before they open up their Scottish Premier League tilt in Inverness on Saturday, anxiety is the over-riding emotion among a Celtic support separated from title success for two years. It was ever thus.

"The Braga tie came so early, the game over there was perhaps a fortnight too soon for us. But we have to get on with it and we can't say that it has come too early about the start of the season. We haven't got time to waste and it can't be a case of everything coming together in three or four weeks. We have to hit the ground running, get a run going straight away. That is what we did under Martin (O'Neill] and we must get back to that. It doesn't matter how many new players we have brought in, we can't feel our way into it. We have to get on to the front foot and stay on it. I have seen enough in the last four weeks to believe we can do that."

The assimilation process for new arrivals Gary Hooper, Efrain Juarez, Joe Ledley, Beram Kayal, Cha Du-Ri, and a still-to-be-attracted goalkeeper, left-back and centre-back will take longer than Thompson believes Celtic have got.

But Thompson and Mjallby are confident that all will be well in the SPL, perhaps because of the level, even in these straitened times, they have been able to operate in the market. As it stands, if including the 800,000 add-ons, the 2.4 million signing of Hooper is the biggest buy in Scotland this summer. The striker had a better than one-in-two strike rate in netting 50 times for Scunthorpe in the past two seasons. The determination to land the 24-year-old who was playing non-league football four years ago might have much to do with the fact that Thompson, as a coach at Newcastle, and Celtic's other first-team coach Gary Parker, as a scout for Aston Villa, would both have been able to provide references for the player much is resting on. Essentially, he is the replacement for Robbie Keane and Scott McDonald. With a goal on his competitive debut in the insufficient 2-1 midweek win at home to Braga, and another in the Emirates Cup contest against Lyon, he has made the right early impression."I know Gary well, and have high hopes for him," Thompson says. "I am confident he has the mentality to succeed at this club, and that is very important." The Geordie is also prepared to vouch for the quality of such as Juarez, Cha and Kayal, at least. "They are all internationalists, so they are no mugs."

"Mugs" is a term that tends to be used to cover the Celtic defence, a clean-sheet yet to be registered in nine games since they returned from close season - much to the chagrin of Mjallby, whose mantra to his present-day successors has been the "great advice" given to him by O'Neill as he transformed the Swede from a defensive midfielder into a centre-back.

"He said 'win the ball, defend for your life and give it to the better players'. This is something we're trying to teach our defenders.

"For me, it was quite easy. Martin said that if I head away everything then I'd always play for him. He told me not to dribble on the ball, leave that to the better players.

"If you look at the goals we've conceded - especially against Braga - it's just been too easy for them. That's why we need to be a bit more ruthless. You don't always need to keep the ball in play. You can be happy just to give away a throw-in and start from there instead of inviting the opponents and losing possession in a dangerous area."

Mjallby sees potential in Jos Hooiveld and Thomas Rogne, two players who have hardly played in nine months because injuries beset them after their arrival in January. Asked if it was important that Dutch pair Hooiveld and Loovens needed to be allowed to develop an understanding - in the absence of any arrivals in that department - the Celtic assistant's response proves telling.

"There's a lot of competition in central defence. I can't really say we've decided on a first-choice partnership right now. You have to remember we have Thomas Rogne as well. He's only 20 but he's a great talent. There are things all the defenders have to work on. We always want to be attack-minded but maybe they need to get it into their mentality that first and foremost they're defenders."

It has been contended that Celtic will start the season weaker than the team that won their last eight league games under Lennon - a charge levelled because Keane and Artur Boruc are no longer around, Lee Naylor has been replaced with Charlie Mulgrew and Aiden McGeady is on his way out - surely. For Mjallby, the summer movement is what it is.

"We've tried to strengthen in some areas and we've been quite happy with the players we've got in. We tried to get David James, Sol Campbell was on the cards for some experience, but it didn't go our way. It's something we're looking at."

All eyes now will be on the players Celtic supporters will be looking at on a weekly basis.