Articles

Celtic Has Spent Big, But How Much More Can We Realistically Spend In This Window?

|
Image for Celtic Has Spent Big, But How Much More Can We Realistically Spend In This Window?

The completion of two big deals this week brought our spending in this window above £15 million.

It is a lot of money, even for a club sitting on a surplus from last season’s transfer dealings and general income, and with £40 million in Champions League cash guaranteed.

We have at least two positions still to strengthen; central defence and the defensive midfield berth.

There are rumours that the club wants another forward.

There is clearly scope to further enhance these parts of the team and the will to fill the defensive midfield role is obvious from the number of players we’ve been linked to there, and the manager’s own words.

Vinicius Souza may or may not be the answer in that area.

Whether we’re still interested or are moving on from him due to the length of time it’s taking is unknown.

Clearly he’s on our list of top options, so I could understand if we were putting a hard shift into this to get the deal done … I could equally understand if we walked and went elsewhere.

Rumours continue to circulate on what the fee would be in that deal. Not cheap, for sure. I did predict that there would be at least one “loan with an option to buy” transfer in this window, and he might well be the one we go for.

He’s a City Group player; that comforts me this year because there will be a ton of data on him and we’ll know his qualities inside out. It also makes a loan to buy deal more likely than it would be if he was leaving for somewhere else.

This boils down to a question as to how much more money we might spend in this window. How much can we afford to spend? There’s certainly an awful lot of cash available to us, but that doesn’t mean that every penny will be sunk into the team.

We’re a club that has always looked beyond only what happens on the pitch. Having a surplus is clearly smart stuff, as the global health crisis proved … as long as the team is not under-resourced as a result of that. We must make the squad the priority.

On top of that, signing Vicinius is a big, expensive piece of business and if there is a way to do some kind of “try before you buy” on that it would be smart stuff. This is especially true if we’re going for a defender and a striker on top of that.

I expect that we will spend some more money.

We might even take the spending up to £20 million; that would be a record for the club in one window, and a demonstration of how strong we are when all the parts of this club are running at maximum capacity.

We can afford it. But that doesn’t mean that we should do it or that we would. We’re a vastly better run club than the one across the city, and unless they can sell at least two of their soon-to-be out of contract players they will certainly not be able to spend anywhere close to what we do. I don’t think they will come close to that anyway.

This window isn’t only about strengthening the squad, it is a show of force.

It a demonstration of how much stronger we are than them.

Have you read our article on what Celtic needs in this window? Do it here.

How much do you know about our wins over Sevco? Do the quiz and find out!

1 of 25

Who scored Celtic’s first ever goal against Sevco?

Share this article

0 comments

  • Thomas says:

    Another great article. My fear is we shouldn’t spend any more until we sell someone. So far we haven’t sold anyone. Barkas Scales Montgomery Jullien Soro Ajeti McCarthy all remain. We need to consider selling Bain Turnbull, Scott Robertson. We simply can’t have a summer with no income from. Sales

    • Paul Mac says:

      You do understand that to play in UEFA competitions we need 8 Home grown players with at least 4 of them trained a the club? The 4 non trained at the club at the moment are Bain Turnbull McCarthy and Taylor .. and you want to sell Bain Turnbull and obviously McCarthy?? so instead of registering 25 players our maximum A squad for the champions league would be 22 … Not sure of his age but Robertson may now fulfil the A team club based criteria .. At present our Club based players are Cal Mac , Forrest (probably a valid reason why he got an extended contract) Ralston, Mikey J and now Welsh (previously was a B squad player due to age) .. so unless we are going to I dont know replace McCarthy with Lewis Ferguson (for example) I cant see us getting shot anytime soon. Actually I remember one of the comments when McCarthy signed was exactly that he helped the squad fulfil the UEFA criteria.

  • Johnny Green says:

    Until Julien departs the scene I don’t expect us to sign another CB. A quality defensive midfielder though is still required, particularly for the CL group games, even though we have midfielders in abundance. Apart from the obvious midfield choices, we also have Liam Shaw and Scott Robertson back from their loan deals but I doubt if they will be ready to step up immediately for the PL games never mind Europe. No doubt they will feature in the coming friendlies along with Uroghide in defence. Another striker is not required unless we get Larsson for nothing. All in all we are in good shape for now and just some fine tuning is necessary.

  • Charlie says:

    Spending in this window can help accumulate wealth and negate the need to spend in the next few.

  • John S says:

    Congratulations to the Board in supporting the manager.

  • Effarr says:

    Any money Celtic have spent hasn`t really gone out the door, it has been transferred onto the field where it can make a far bigger profit for them than lying in the bank. If all goes to plan, the players bought for this £15m could be worth double that in a few weeks even and, as someone else said, there won`t need to be so much spending for the next few years.

  • SSMPM says:

    Credit to the Board for the financial support they put into signings. Funnily looking back they spent a lot in the year leading up to and of the Ten too. Not sure how much but off the top of my head we firstly didn’t sell Ajer, French Eddie, Christie, etc, £2m loan on Duffy, a shit striker for £5m, a £5m goalie with holes in his hands, think but not sure what year Boli bollocks was for £3m, Taylor for £2m, loaned in Mo from Southampton again, loaned in right backs at what cost I don’t know (Now I’m sure this is not totally accurate but I think the point is). No lack of financial support from the board there and yet a season of despair. So Board spending didn’t seem to be the problem then either. Same again this season Board spending has been supportive.
    The clear and absolute difference this time around though (and to some extent last season) is that the Board has let the manager be the deciding factor in who we target and sign, a football man. The lesson is so obvious that I hope its has not only been learned but engrained in the Board and fans forever. It was not the lack of financial support rather their interference on football matters. Stick to your day job

Comments are closed.