The Sion stakes

Approximately one year ago, Celtic bombed out of the Champions League and Europa League at the qualifying stages – as if we needed a reminder so I apologise for giving you that reminder. However, yesterday’s published financial report certainly did remind us how vital money from European football is to our club.

Now I am just a football fan like the majority of readers and I much prefer to focus on what is happening on the pitch instead of what is going on in the board room or with the clubs finances but the fact that the club made approximately half a million profit is a bit of a worry for me.

Unfortunately, finances do have a serious impact on what happens on the pitch so here are my thoughts on yesterdays figures.

If nothing else, I miss the big European nights at Parkhead but more importantly, I don’t think the club can afford not to qualify for the Europa or Champions league. It isn’t just the case that it’s nice to be involved in the European competitions, we have to be there in order to improve our squad and in order to keep challenging for domestic honours which is, of course, the gateway to European football.

After the legends game and the match against Dundee Utd, there is a bit of a feel good factor going on at Celtic Park just now.

Unfortunately, as we all know, a feel good factor isn’t enough to win a football game but I think if we, the fans, can be at the top of our voice and give every ounce of encouragement to our team – regardless of who starts for us, we can get the job done.

A few paragraphs ago, I made the point that it is essential not just desirable for us to qualify and I say that based on the financial results published yesterday that most of us would have read about by now.

The club made a profit of approximately £500k. When you take into account the fact that we got about £10 million for the sale of Aiden McGeady, it shows how little cash there is available for us to play with. It also shows that we would have made a loss of £9.5million had we not sold Aiden so does that mean that without European football, we will have to sell a player each season to the value of £10 million?

If so, how can we be expected to operate and compete if we are having to sell a star man each season?

Television revenue in Scotland is pretty low so I guess the club have to rely on us buying tickets for matches and pies or whatever you care to eat at the stadium along with replica shirts etc. to keep being able to pay the amount of money that is required to pay the type of players who can take us, not only into the Europa league but also to compete in it.

I would have to suggest that it is a bit of a catch 22 situation in regards to us and the Europa League – if we don’t qualify, we are unlikely to be able to buy very many new players. I don’t like to focus on what may not happen, especially when it is such a negative thing, however, I think we may end up having to go down the road of selling one of our star men if we don’t progress.

If we are only having a profit to the tune of £500k, then surely that means that the wages will have to decrease and transfer budgets will decrease further so, naturally, the overall ability of our squad would decrease.

Perhaps the next question to be asked is who could we sell on over the next few years for a large transfer fee, or at least a fee similar to that of what McGeady brought in?

I think when he’s fit again, Izagguire will be one of the most valuable assets of our squad – on the basis that he was player of the year and due to the fact that there are already a number of teams rumoured to be interested in securing his services.

Another one is ‘Dave’, better known as Ki Seung Yueng. If Ki can keep up his early season form along with the improvement that he showed last season he is another who is going to be a valuable player. Already there are rumours that Liverpool are interested in him.

The same applies for Gary Hooper and Joe Ledley – both are young players who have made a good start to their careers at Celtic and players who, if they continue to improve, are good enough to play in the Premiership.

Kayal is the next obvious one, I could probably run through the whole squad and it would be safe to say the majority could be sold on but we are told by Peter Lawell that the club wants to come out of a transfer window stronger than we went into it.

Unless the silly amounts of money on offer over world football is to drop, then I fear that it could take a long time before we are able to catch up with the teams that have more available cash than us.

Maybe our best hope is to wait and see the rear end falls out of the premiership and the other rich leagues as it has to be impossible to suggest that the cash on offer there can continue to keep going at the current level.

Hopefully Mr Lawell has other ideas in mind and hopefully we can get right behind the team on Thursday and blow Sion away with the unique atmosphere that we are able to generate.

CLICK HERE for Euan Norris’ refereeing statistics

CLICK HERE for twitter fans vote for Ki

Follow Video Celts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube