Celtic manager Gordon Strachan believes the Scottish Premier League should use the current crisis surrounding Gretna to "revamp" their product.The SPL new boys slipped into administration on Wednesday and it was only confirmed on Friday that the club will have enough players to fulfil their SPL fixture against Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Saturday.

Gretna's players have not been paid and are free to find another club and at first only 10 of the 17 senior professionals at the Borders club were prepared to turn out at Pittodrie.

However, a squad including several under-19 players has been assembled for the trip north.

Strachan, alluding in part to Gretna's last game against Dundee United at Fir Park which attracted only 501 fans, did not offer concrete solutions to the problem but challenged the SPL to consider the future of top-flight football in Scotland.

He said: "I keep saying that to promote the game we have to give the people outside Scotland the best.

"We want more sponsorship and we want to get people thinking highly of the league.

"Aberdeen, Rangers and ourselves have done well on the European scene.

"But some of our games that are shown live to the world with nobody in the stadium, or stadiums with two stands - it's not the best.

"Sometimes we let ourselves down by some of the pitches we play on and by the fact that there is a club struggling to get a team together.

"If we want to make it the best we can then we have to look at the whole thing and have a revamp.

"We have to see how we package the game for the whole world to look at because there is a good product here.

"I could be here all day (discussing it) but I will let people chew over the fat."

Celtic dropped two crucial points in a goalless draw against Dundee United at Parkhead on Wednesday but travel to Motherwell tomorrow knowing a win would take them back top of the SPL table ahead of Rangers on goal difference, although the Govan side will have two games in hand.

Strachan accepts that the much-criticised Fir Park pitch is not conducive to silky football but insists his two playmakers, Shunsuke Nakamura and Aiden McGeady, will not be sacrificed.

He said: "It wouldn't be right if I left out Nakamura and McGeady.

"The two of them were excellent against Dundee United the other night.

"Whatever system we play, I have to get the two of them in the team because they can make chances and they can score.

"If you check their workrate on the computer, it is phenomenal so those two are doing as much as they can."

Strachan added: "We have a lot of good things going for us at the moment.

"We had more than 40 attempts at goal in the last two games and that's not bad.

"If I use a golfing analogy, from tee to green it is fine but the real golfers can finish off the opportunities.

"In the last couple of games we haven't done that.

"It is a new challenge for a lot of lads.

"But it is a bit strange because we have scored the same amount of goals at the moment as we did throughout the whole of last season.

"We are also two goals better off defensively so it is rather strange.

"You must give credit to Rangers for doing so well in the league, we can't just be down on ourselves.

"We would like to have done more but to a degree we have been excellent.

"We can't afford any more slip-ups but if we keep on doing as we are doing, and making so many chances, then we can't ask for too much more of the players."

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