Stephen McGowan is anticipating something of a spending spree from Celtic this summer.
In the first days of his second reign as manager of Celtic Brendan Rodgers approved the purchase of Odin Thiago Holm in a £2.5m deal from Valerenga.
A number of guesses/estimates have been made about the transfer funds available to the new Celtic boss but much could depend on what players leave the club, in January Ange Postecoglou made a surplus in trading with Giorgos Giakoumakis and Josip Juranovic leaving the club.
Across the city Michael Beale is trying to build a squad for the domestic challenges and to qualify for the Champions League group stages but net spending so far is just £3m despite the departure of four of last season’s regulars and Malik Tillman returning to Bayern Munich.
McGowan is known for being ahead of the game with news from inside Celtic Park, in the Daily Mail he hints at the expected level of spending to come:
While Beale has signed Kieran Dowell, Sam Lammers, Dujon Sterling and keeper Jack Butland, negotiations to sign striker Cyriel Dessers from Cremonese have struck a road block over the £7million asking price tag.
Across the city, meanwhile, Odin Thiago Holm won’t be the biggest Celtic signing of the summer by any stretch.
While Rodgers throws £2.5m at a 20-year-old protege, however, his Ibrox counterpart needs to spend every penny on oven-ready first-team players who can hit the ground running.
Alfredo Morelos, Ryan Kent, Allan McGregor and Scott Arfield might have checked out after a trophyless season.
Over the piece the four were quality signings. And replacing them won’t be as straightforward as many seem to think.
Last summer Celtic spent close to £20m on Cameron Carter-Vickers, Jota, Alexandro Bernabei and Sead Haksabanovic, there will be an expectation from fans that that figure will be surpassed in the current window.
If Rodgers outspends Beale, adding to a treble winning squad the Ibrox boss will have his work cut out to take any of the trophies currently resident in the Celtic trophy room.
There’s no point in just spending for the sake of it,we need to make sure any incoming player is better or has greater potential than the players we already have,we have wasted millions on players like ajeti,barkas and more in the past.
MC Gowan of the anti Celtic rag .. the daily Mail ! I’m trying to figure out which is the lowest and disingenuous of these two ? Fake news or an unnamed source of information ! Both are deceitful .and preposterous. Still , he makes a nice middle class living ,which I suppose is one of the ways of the world today !
Dont know where THEM ate getting money from,HMRC MUST HAVE A LOOK,AND UEFA FAIR PLAY MUST ALSO ASK,FACEPAINTER STILL NOT PAID.
As long as we don,t sell our big players to add funds we already have ,get the right players at the right deals ,looking to add to strength not to weaken it