Scottish Premier League/ Celtic 5; Livingstone 1: The champagne did not have time to go flat following Celtic's second successive Premier League championship success before Martin O'Neill began plotting for the future.
The manager of the newly crowned champions, who beat Livingston 5-1 to take the title, accepted the plaudits and then admitted: "We need three or four new players."
"We have to move on from here," he continued. "We had some wonderful European nights against the likes of Juventus and Valencia last season and the fans want more of that. To compete at the higher level we need some new faces.
"We also need that to try and keep this Premier League title, because you can be sure Rangers will strengthen."
Yet while O'Neill recognises the acute need for more quality, he has to find the appropriate players and entice them to a country where they would be involved in a two-horse race.
Moreover, he has to persuade his club's powers-that-be to loosen the purse strings and enable him to make those significant purchases, and it was not mere coincidence, more part of a grand masterplan, that had him pointing out that in his two-year tenure at the club he has twice been within budget in his spending.
It was almost as if he was telling Celtic's backers, whom he will meet soon to talk about a new budget and indeed his contract which has only one more season to run, that he has kept his side of the bargain and now it is up to them to do likewise.
O'Neill has seen Chris Sutton and Neil Lennon linked with Leeds United and Joos Valgaeren with Borussia Dortmund of late, but is anxious to bolster his squad rather than replace existing players, and those who have served him so well will, he hopes, stay around.
"I am aware of clubs circling but that always happens when you have a winning team," he said. "It is my intention to keep the players here and I have no reason to suppose they are not happy to stay."
O'Neill, while he was happy and determined to look ahead, also wanted to savour the moment on Saturday afternoon after his players had completed the title-winning job in style.
Despite the fact that widespread booing forced the referee to cut short a minute's silence in memory of the Queen Mother to 32 seconds, a Henrik Larsson hat-trick and a double from John Hartson sparked a huge party in the east end of Glasgow.
CELTIC: Douglas, Mjallby, Sutton, Crainey (McNamara76), Agathe, Lennon, Lambert (Smith 75), Petrov, Guppy (Moravcik 67), Larsson, Hartson. Subs Not Used: Gould, Boyd. Goals: Larsson 3, Hartson 19, 25, Larsson 33, 59.
LIVINGSTON: Broto, Petersen, Rubio, Andrews, Bollan, Lovell, Quino (Toure-Maman 45), Makel, Bingham (Jokovic 45), Wilson, Xausa (Brittain 60). Subs Not Used: McEwan, Santini. Booked: Wilson. Goals: Wilson 72.
Referee: W Young (Scotland).
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