Today some of the press is saying Brendan Rodgers is set to be handed a £15 million transfer fund. Where does the media get this stuff from?
I expect Brendan to have backing by this board. I expect him to spend money.
I don’t think anyone at Celtic will have given the media a specific figure, and I have read through the reports on this and cannot find a single piece of actual verification. It is all speculative. I am tempted to say that it is, in fact, all utter nonsense.
There are good reasons why clubs don’t like this stuff getting out, and our club in particular, with the media ever watchful and our relatively small money pile. First, it raises expectations which might not be realised. Brendan will have targets in mind; he won’t simply spend for the sake of it. If we don’t get his targets, then what? If this £15 million figure sinks into people’s heads then they’ll call that a broken promise, when in fact no promise has been made.
On top of that, it weakens your hand in negotiations if someone knows exactly what you have available to spend.
We can expect a seven figure increase in any fee we want to pay if word gets out that we have £15 million.
Celtic has just sent out the season ticket forms, with a very nice letter from our manager, where he thanks supporters and promises big things in the future. I think that’s a promise he can keep, which is why he’s made it. Our club never makes promises it can’t; you only have to look across town to the Glib and Shameless Liar to see the consequences of that.
Between now and the window opening we’ll be linked with a load of people. Once that window actually does open we’re going to be bombarded by nonsense day in, day out. There will be business. We may even, as I’ve predicted a few times, break our long standing transfer record.
But we’ll never how much money is in the manager’s kitty, not even after he’s spent a few quid.
We can afford to splash the cash. We can’t afford to let too many folk in on the secret as to just how much there is. £15 million would represent an outlay bigger than that which we initially handed to Martin O’Neill. Brendan has proved he can spend wisely.
He can also keep his mouth shut.