Kieran Devlin has moved to clarify his claim that Celtic have a £20m cap on their summer signing.
Coverting three loans into permanent moves plus the purchase of Alexandro Bernabei has taken spending to around £17.5m.
With six weeks of the window left most fans would anticipate at least one and possibly two new signings, that could be increased of there are any players sold.
Converting three loan signings plus the arrivals of Ben Siegrist and Beranabei has left the first team squad similar in numbers following the departures of Nir Bitton, Tom Rogic and Karamoko Dembele.
In a wide ranging article published on Saturday in The Athletic, Devlin claimed:
They are reluctant to spend more than £20 million ($23.7m) this summer, which was also their rough limit last year. It was why, after spending £4.5 million on Carl Starfelt, £3.6 million on Liel Abada, £1 million on Hart and £5 million on Kyogo Furuhashi, their initial target for right-back was taking Manchester City’s Yan Couto on loan before he moved to Girona — prompting £2.7 million to be spent on Josip Juranovic.
The £20m ‘cap’ was explained in some detail but following a critical/negative reaction Devlin added:
To clarify, and it’s my fault for not clarifying properly at the start, I apologise, the £20 million isn’t a hard cap the club won’t exceed under any circumstances. From chatting to people close to the club this summer and last, it’s a guiding ball-park figure to help plan recruitment for a window, which is why I say they’d be reluctant to go over £20 million rather than they simply won’t.
If they see value in going over that figure, they will, but they want to be convinced the value is there.
It is not clear who Devlin is referring to when he says ‘if they see value’. The January window was widely greeted as one of the most successful ever with the four arrivals all having the stamp of Ange Postecoglou all over.
If Matt O’Riley, Reo Hatate, Yosuke Ideguchi and Daizen Maeda can’t convince people inside the club over Postecoglou’s judgement the draw for the Champions League group stage really should leave all footballing decisions with the manager.
Having football decisions taken by the club manager seems to be a significant step forward at Celtic, Postecoglou will stand or fall by his own signings. Convincing non-football executives of the value to be had in potential signings seems to compromise the way that the January window was handled.