Robbie Neilson has grand plans for Hearts as new season closes in

Robbie Neilson has targeted consistent qualification for European group-stage football as the key to helping Hearts meet their ambitions of mounting a title challenge.

Neilson has signed a new three-year contract at Tynecastle after helping the club to the Championship title, a Scottish Cup final and guaranteed group-stage football in the two years since returning for a second spell in charge.

Sporting director Joe Savage has publicly proclaimed his ambition of ending Celtic and Rangers’ title duopoly, which started in 1986, and Neilson feels Europe holds the key.

The 42-year-old, whose team open their cinch Premiership campaign at home to Ross County on Saturday, said: “We have to try and build over the next few years and I think the key for us is: can we continually get into European group-stage football?

“If we can that for two, three, four years, it allows us to build. There is no doubt that the gulf is massive but we want to try and keep cutting away at it and cutting away to try and get to an opportunity where we can actually mount a challenge.

“I’m not going to put a time limit on it, I think it’s going to be a process over a number of seasons.

“But the key one for us, can we continually get into European football, because that is ultimately where the club make the finances to allow us to improve the squad and the club as a whole and start bridging that gap.”

Neilson was heading into the final season of his contract but has pledged his future to 2025 along with assistants Lee McCulloch and Gordon Forrest.

“We have speaking about it for a couple of months now so to finally get it sorted is great, it allows us to focus on the season ahead,” he said.

“First and foremost I am really enjoying my time back at Hearts,