In the fevered final days of the transfer window, when word surfaced of the alleged multi-million pound bid for Dembele, I pondered what Celtic could do with so much wealth that a Scottish club dare not spend it on players.
Before I start, I feel that point needs to be tackled.
One of the most annoying things about Sevco’s Grand Delusion, that they can “overinvest” and that it won’t have long term consequences, is the sheer simplicity of it, and I mean that in a bad way. Their fans don’t try to wrap their brains around what it actually means, and the media certainly has no desire to educate them. So let me.
Say Brendan was given £20 million to spend on players.
If he went out and did that, and splashed that cash on five players in the £4 million range, our cost base would soar. It could add £2 million per year to the wage budget, and that only if we were lucky. To actually speculate like that you need to be earning an extra £2 million to offset it.
Celtic always factors that stuff in before taking a major decision like that.
Look at the difference with Sevco, who’s cost base is already too high.
If they go out and sign high profile players in pursuit of Europe and then fail to get there, that could destroy them. Literally. There has to be someone at that club who actually gets that, who understands it, but that person doesn’t seem to have a voice around the boardroom table.
I realise that if Moussa went for £30 million or more it would be unwise to give the manager every single penny of that.
We’d have one year of wine and roses and then could spend the next three or four of them pinching pennies. One good Champions League campaign would pay for that splurge, of course, but failure to get there, whilst not disastrous, would be bad.
Sevco and its board would have you believed the Champions League is like a magic spell that makes everything alright. The media writes about how much we earned in the competition as if that cash went straight into the coffers as pure profit; in fact, the costs to run Champions League games at Celtic Park, travel to away ties, security, rates, appearance money, win bonuses and all whittle down the total take. Oh it’s still substantial … but don’t overestimate it.
Yesterday, at full time, Brendan talked to the press and one of the things he highlighted was his concern at the state of the Parkhead pitch. Now, if you watched the Hearts – Hibs Scottish Cup tie in midweek you’ll have seen a pitch that was in a truly shocking state; Celtic Park’s looks positively pristine by comparison. Yet it’s not so, Brendan says, and he wants some of the pot of gold to put that right. It’ll cost roughly £2 million.
To me, that’s money well spent. That’s infrastructure, that’s a substantial improvement to our club overall. On top of that, it’s investment inward and that’s a nice tax write-off so it probably won’t hurt the balance sheet as much as you’d think.
I’m not suggesting that every penny of our Champions League bounty should be spent on upgrades to the stadium and the playing surface; Brendan will get his transfer kitty for the summer and it ought to be a pretty decent one. But these kind of projects are important too, and our club should always be seeking to innovate and grow.
The sale of someone like Moussa, bringing in untold millions, representing pure profit, would present us with even greater opportunities. Not all of that would be spent on the team, there are other uses for it which would do us immense long term good.
The Celtic Village project, for example, and the hotels and bars we’ve long dreamed about, would turn a profit for us year on year and far into the future. They would add millions to the cost base as the signing of top players would, but they would also bring that money in. And that addition to the revenue stream would be incredibly beneficial to us in our quest to move even further ahead of every club in Scotland as well as progressing in Europe.
Celtic thinks about the bigger picture. £2 million on a brand new pitch? Which other club in Scotland could even contemplate that? It will likely dwarf the transfer budgets of every other club combined next season, but these aren’t frivolous luxuries like big screens and a better class of match-day entertainment. These make us a better football team, and infrastructure projects make us a better, richer, club.
Everything we do is driven by long term thinking, and if you think about it that investment in the new pitch is an investment in Brendan Rodgers and his ideas, and should calm any palpitating hearts who might think he’s only here for a short stay.
We tell Sevco fans that they need to live in the real world; I think Celtic fans can say that from the perspective that we already do. Regardless of what some seem to believe (some amongst our own support) the majority of us do not hanker for a sugar daddy or for a club that spends as if it has one. We want a club that’s not afraid to take calculated risks, to push the boat out for a top boss to propel us forward as a club, but not one that is reckless bordering on insane.
Is £2 million for a new playing surface really a better “investment” than a new striker?
We’re in the fortunate position of not having to choose one or the other, and if it gets Brendan’s team playing more of that magical football we’ve seen so often this season it’s cheap at twice the price.