Celtic’s financial statement was a show of force, and timed for maximum harm across town.

Yesterday, with almost impeccable timing, as the Ibrox club was struggling with an enormous decision—one that would cost them dearly no matter what they chose—and as some of us were still smarting over the transfer window fiasco, Celtic dropped its annual accounts. And they landed with the force of an atomic detonation.

This is both extraordinarily good and really frustrating at the same time.

The frustration is obvious. We have all this money sitting in the bank, we’ve posted yet another profit, and although it’s only a six-month figure, it’s large enough that you know the final annual number is going to be pretty impressive as well. And yet, we’re still short in a couple of key areas on the pitch because of another poor January window.

But this is not an article about the January window.

Everyone knows what I think of it. I’ve talked it out in several pieces, and I’m not quite done yet. But this is about the positives.

And obviously, those numbers are all upside. The cash on hand in the bank decreased, and that was really the only thing people looking for negatives could cling to. But the reason for that decrease is that we spent some serious money on infrastructure. We spent a seven figure sum improving security measures outside our own ground to accommodate the fans of one particular club.

I have no idea whether they’ve reciprocated or not, but if they haven’t, they won’t be getting tickets and won’t be coming to Celtic Park. And that means we spent this money for nothing. But we can afford to. And the new additional security around the ground won’t do us any harm.

The other major hit to the numbers was the money spent on the Barrowfield project. But that is nothing but money well spent if it improves conditions for our youth players and our women’s team. It’s a long-overdue upgrade. Although, it does seem strange to now be running two separate training facilities, which can’t be cheap either. But again, as I said, we can afford it.

I read an astonishingly negative article on the accounts last night, and I’ll be writing about that later. But there’s almost no way to spin this as a bad result. There’s almost no way these numbers can be framed as a negative. They are astonishing, and we are in the best shape we’ve been in during my lifetime. We’re so far ahead of the club across town that they can’t even see us for dust.

The key thing to note is that profit is up by over £10 million compared to this time last year. That means, whatever happens in the second half of the campaign, we’re going to finish this season comfortably in the black and quite possibly regrowing that cash pile to brand-new levels.

And amidst all the talk of Celtic’s spending potential and how far ahead we are of the Ibrox club in that regard, something else needs to be noted.

The fact that we were able to do major infrastructure spending and still post profits should shock people to their core and terrify those across the city. Because that is the real sign of strength. That is the sign of a club operating with tremendous power at its disposal, the sort capable of leaving all of our opponents in the dirt.

Not many clubs can carry out major infrastructure projects while also spending in the transfer market. And it is rare—bordering on unheard of—to be able to do that, win trophies, and still turn a profit.

The things this board does well, it does exceptionally well.

It’s difficult to know what the Ibrox club does next in response to this.

It’s difficult to see how they put together a plan to catch us when that now looks absolutely impossible. Because that wasn’t just a publication of accounts yesterday. That was a show of force. One of those rare moments when Celtic actually rides the PR wave, maximises the moment, and hammers home a point at the exact time it will hurt someone else the most.

We were under no obligation to post the accounts this early. We had maybe another week or so before we had to put those numbers out there. So why did we pick yesterday of all days?

Because the Celtic board knew that most of us would be happy. Happy enough to perhaps greet those results positively without focusing too much on the lingering frustrations of the January window.

But make no mistake—if you’re going to post a profit for the first half of the year that’s over £10 million up on last year’s numbers, even as you announce major infrastructure spending, even as you remind folk that you broke the club’s transfer record twice, what better day to do it than when the opposition is so all at sea that they can’t even scrape together a financial package to sack a failed manager?

What better time to post how strong you are than the day after they’ve been knocked out of the Scottish Cup by a lower league side and their season is over in February? And that, my friends, is what I mean when I say it was a show of force.

So congratulations once again to Celtic for posting such astounding numbers. I take a lot of pleasure in those figures, even amidst my frustration that more of that cash wasn’t put in the manager’s hands—as it absolutely should have been. I still know there are serious problems with this club. There are serious problems with our level of ambition, and serious problems with how we do things at times.

But yesterday was a good day. On and off the pitch, yesterday was a good day.

There’s nothing but high confidence all around Parkhead and it looks to be fully justified.

Photo by Jan Kruger – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images

The other night we put up our latest podcast. Recorded just after the Ibrox club went crashing out of the cup, we called it They’re Simply Depressed.