Yesterday evening, Celtic announced their third signing of the current summer transfer window in Paulo Bernardo.
From the outside looking in, the five-year deal took some time behind the scenes to be completed. Between times, one numbers-savvy supporter explored how the Parkhead side's business compares on a broader scale to similarly-structured clubs with similar resources.
Using Transfermerkt data, Reddit user Own_Detail3500 admits the research should be taken with a pinch of salt but makes comparisons between Celtic and the likes of Porto, Benfica, Ajax and Rangers.
"My criteria is teams that have a similar wage budget, but aren't in the top 5 leagues, or aren't uber wealthy," they said. "Teams that fancy themselves as getting a run in CL/Europa.
"In terms of wages, Ajax/Benfica actually far exceed most teams (probably twice what Celtic can muster) and Bodo a lot lot less.
"I deliberately tried to get Celtic as a 'mid table' point in terms of spending power based on the Swiss Rambles wage figures (who apparently gets it from annual reports, so should be accurate, if out of date at times).
"Of course, there are other factors when it comes to spending power and indeed undoubtedly teams I've missed out, so go easy. Anyway, here's the numbers ordered by spend."
With that, the Redditor concludes, suggesting Celtic are "vastly" underspending in their view. By their assessment, few left-backs are changing hands in the market, despite Benfica having signed two in this position, and the user believes there are "several" centre-back options Celtic have missed out on over the course so far.
Own_Detail3500 added: "Final caveat, spending will also be influenced by the state of your squad + appetite to rebuild. Ajax, Porto (kind of) and Salzburg just have a new manager so expect business there yet.
"The two things that I've found most interesting is that some teams are not doing that much business yet either despite (from what I've read) fans demanding more, [for example, Ajax and Salzburg]."
