CELTIC’S lengthy reign as the dominant force in Scottish football may have ended last season when they finally lost their vice-like grip on the Premiership, League Cup and Scottish Cup trophies they had held for four long years.
The Parkhead club might also have bombed in Europe during their disastrous 2020/21 campaign by first failing to qualify for the Champions League group stages for the fourth consecutive season and then finishing bottom of their Europa League section.
Yet, when it comes to enjoying success in the international transfer market and balancing their books there is still, despite their well-documented difficulties in the past 12 months, nobody to touch them in this country and few who can match them abroad.
Amid all of the interest in who Celtic club had brought in and who had departed in the final hours of the summer window last Tuesday night, the fact that they had once again made an eight figure profit from their dealings was almost ignored.
No fewer than 12 players, including Liel Abada, Kyogo Furuhashi, Giorgios Giakoumakis, Joe Hart, Josip Juranovic, James McCarthy and Carl Starfelt, were signed. In total, just shy of £20m was spent strengthening Ange Postecoglou’s squad.
There were exactly a dozen who went in the other direction. The sales of Kristoffer Ajer, Vakoun Issouf Bayo, Ryan Christie, Odsonne Edouard, Jack Hendry and others banked them in excess of £33m.
Amid a global pandemic which has had a devastating impact on football clubs around the world, they made a profit of over £13m from player sales. Their interim financial results in February showed they had posted a pre-tax loss of £6m. The tidy sum, then, should ensure their continued stability after an unprecedented period of turmoil.
READ MORE: No big money buys in the transfer window - but Scottish champions Rangers are still stronger than last season
Supporters are more concerned with their team playing well and winning games than how healthy the club coffers are. A good board, though, is conscious they have to perform a delicate balancing act; deliver silverware while living within their means and staying solvent. Celtic have done both consistently for many years. It is surely preferrable to, as many clubs across Europe have done to their cost, plunging into crippling debt by recklessly chasing glory.
The quadruple treble winners’ failures on the field last term led furious fans to accuse major shareholder Dermot Desmond, then chief executive Peter Lawwell and their fellow directors of negligent stewardship.
The way the ultra element showed their unhappiness was regrettable at times. But they did have an argument. Money was certainly spent to ensure that 10-In-A-Row was completed and history made. It cost over £12m to land Albian Ajeti, Vasilis Barkas and David Turnbull. It took a pretty penny to bring in Shane Duffy and Diego Laxalt on loan. But it was not money well spent.
Their disastrous recruitment drive led to further criticism of their corporate structure, not least the amount of influence wielded by Lawwell on football matters. It was obvious than an overhaul of their set-up was required if they were to continue to flourish. What has worked in the past will not always continue to yield results in the rapidly-changing modern game.
But changes were made and further modernisation is in the pipeline. The promising displays of many of their new arrivals, not least Furuhashi, suggest that some important lessons have been learned from their annus horribilis and indicate that going forward they can continue to prosper.
The much-anticipated sale of prized assets at Rangers didn’t, for the umpteenth successive transfer window, materialise last week. Steven Gerrard arguably has, despite Cedric Itten and Nikola Katic going out on loan, a stronger squad now than he did last term.
But the exit of some big names is coming sooner rather than later. Chairman Douglas Park and vice-chairman John Bennett last year pledged to provide the assistance required to cover a projected shortfall of £23.2m and ensure the Ibrox club could continue as a going concern until the end of the 2021/22 season.
The £5m that Far East property developer Stuart Gibson invested has eased the burden on Park and Bennett. So has the £4.5m raised at a recent share issue. The revenue generated by their Premiership win and European run and from merchandise and season ticket sales has helped as well. However, Rangers must still sell to achieve the sustainability their loyal followers deserve.
They have exactly the same strategy as their city rivals, develop raw talents over time and cash in on them after getting years of service, do. In Joe Aribo, Borna Barisic, Glen Kamara, Ryan Kent, Alfredo Morelos and Nathan Patterson, they have individuals who can potentially command big fees. Kent alone could bring in somewhere in the region of £20m if he rediscovers his sparkling form of last season.
Getting top dollar for those footballers, not just getting them off their books to bring in additional funds, will be crucial to their continued recovery. There is, as Donald Trump once wrote, an art to the deal. They need look no further than the East End to see how it should be done.
Rangers may have finished no fewer than 25 points ahead of their nearest challengers in the top flight in May, but when it comes to wheeling and dealing in the transfer market they still, due to the long-term ramifications of their 2012 implosion, have some catching up to do.
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