The next four days will be pivotal in Brendan Rodgers Celtic career as the extent of his player budget becomes apparent.
At 11pm on Monday night the deadline passes for signing players for the play-off stage of the Champions League although one wild card is permitted on the day before the first leg.
So far for the addition of two players, on considerable salaries but with transfer fees of around £500,000, Rodgers has delivered a place in the play-off stage of the Champions League. Two matches away from £20m and the biggest pick-me-up a club can get.
Off the park Rodgers has shifted perhaps 20,000 season tickets that wouldn’t have been touched if Ronny Deila was still in charge.
The manager has so far delivered everything that has been asked of him- over the next four days the powers that be must ensure that their manager has the players that he wants to take Celtic into the group phase of the Champions League.
It seems fairly obvious that there is interest in signing Scott Sinclair. Whatever the reasons for the deal not being completed the matter really needs to be concluded one way or another.
Every deal has a line in the sand moment, Celtic’s continued interest would suggest that the player is keen on the move, if Aston Villa are moving the goal posts or valuing the player too highly Celtic need to act decisively.
Unusually for a Celtic manager Rodgers has twice spoken out about the need to bring in new faces.
After beating Lincoln Red Imps he said that he hoped to have one or two players in for the next round. Kolo Toure managed 30 minutes of the second leg against Astana.
Last Saturday after the match with Barcelona Rodgers gave a way a little more saying: “How many would I like to bring in? Ideally I would like another four. We shall see if that’s do-able. It just takes time. I respect that and understand that.”
Signing four players by Monday night is probably unrealistic, two additions would be reasonable. If it’s less than that some fans are bound to wonder about the backing the manager is getting from within the club.