THE Celtic supporter who told Peter Lawwell to “get the f****** money spent” as the Parkhead chairman arrived at the SMiSA Stadium in Paisley before the William Hill Premiership match against St Mirren last Sunday was given short shrift.
But somebody, somewhere in the East End of Glasgow must have seen the video of the exchange when it was posted on X, the social media outlet formerly known as Twitter.
Nobody will be able to accuse the bean counters at the Scottish champions of not speculating to accumulate during the final days of the summer transfer window when they turn up for the league game with Rangers tomorrow.
The arrival of Belgian midfielder Arne Engels from Bundesliga outfit Augsburg for a club record £11m fee, the capture of United States internationalist Auston Trusty from Sheffield United for £5.5m and the acquisition of Luke McCowan from Dundee for £1m has taken their summer outlay over the £30m mark.
Paulo Bernardo (£3.4m) Adam Idah (£8.5m), Kasper Schmeichel (free) and Viljami Sinisalo (£1m) had already been brought on board from Benfica, Norwich City, Anderlecht and Aston Villa respectively. Alex Valle, too, has joined from Barcelona on loan.
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But what is perhaps more impressive than Celtic’s recruitment drive is the fact they have managed to strengthen at the same time as turning a tidy profit.
With Matt O’Riley moving to Brighton in a deal which will eventually net them £30m and Sead Haksabanovic (Malmo), Oh Hyeon-gyu (Genk), Tomoki Iwata (Birmingham City), Mikey Johnston (West Brom), Daniel Kelly (Millwall), Yuki Kobayashi (Portimonense), Bosun Lawal (Stoke City) and Rocco Vata (Watford) all exiting, they have not only trimmed a bloated squad but brought in around £38m.
That will swell their reserves – which their half-yearly financial results revealed stood at a whopping £67m when they were published back in February – even further. It is going to be one helluva Christmas party.
In all seriousness, though, this stockpiling of cash does beg a question. What exactly is the money going to be used for? Lawwell stated that it had been earmarked for “the creation of a new training centre at Barrowfield, the finalisation of the Lennoxtown developments and future stadium expenditure” in the interim report.
This has been a recurring theme at their AGM in recent times. Michael Nicholson, their chief executive, addressed the issue two years ago after taking a question from a shareholder.
“Unfortunately, the South Stand is a historic asset,” he said. “In an ideal world we would always want to increase the capacity. We have looked into it and it would cost up to £100m to redevelop in its entirety. That’s money we don’t have at the moment.”
But that was then and this is now. Remember, Celtic are set to bank in the region of £40m from their involvement in the new Champions League league phase this term. Their forthcoming meetings with Borussia Dortmund, Atalanta, Dinamo Zagreb and Aston Villa away and RB Leipzig, Club Brugge, Young Boys and Slovan Bratislava at home will be lucrative.
Those monies will not simply be deposited in their account. Considerable expenses are incurred competing in the continent’s elite club competition. Still, they will certainly make more than they will spend.
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Chris McKay, the Celtic financial director, stated at the AGM last year that any improvement work on the South Stand was unfeasible because “the equations just don’t add up”. But can a price really be put on increasing their already significant advantage over Rangers and their other domestic rivals?
Their counterparts across the River Clyde are acutely aware they are currently three points behind before a ball is kicked at the start of every season due to the fact their city rivals have a stadium which holds 60,000 and their ground only seats 51,000. They have embarked on a six year plan to bridge the gap.
That is not going particularly well so far. The redevelopment of the Copland Stand has taken far longer than expected due to shipments of steel from Asia being delayed. They will, though, learn invaluable lessons from the unfortunate experience.
There is nowhere in European football to match Parkhead for atmosphere on a Champions League night. There is a raw energy which is absent in many larger and more futuristic arenas. Superstars of the global game rave about the experience of playing there for years afterwards.
But Celtic must seek to improve their stadium just as much as their team and should seriously contemplate if they can “spend the f****** money” on doing away with a main stand which was opened way back in 1971 and transforming their spiritual home into one of the truly great amphitheatres of the world game.
They would have the whip hand on Rangers for years to come if they did.
