Ronny Deila has said that a Celtic reserve team should be competing in the Scottish Championship.

The Norwegian believes that the inclusion of reserve teams in the Scottish lower leagues would help to bridge the gap between Under-20 and senior football.

"We want to bring players in to train with the first team when they are 16/17 years old, like Kieran Tierney and Aidan Nesbitt, and we do that," Deila told reporters.

"When they get to the age of 19 or 20 I think playing in the Under-20s team is too easy for them and also it is a big gap between playing for the Under-20s and playing at Celtic Park and playing for Celtic.

"If we have our best second team then we can maybe challenge for the Championship, maybe in the second division, but it would be very good to put young players into that environment and play important matches in good stadiums with games that really count."

Tierney, 18, has made five appearances for the Bhoys while Nesbitt made his debut in their Scottish League Cup match against Raith Rovers in September.