It’s clear that Celtic has a certain category of player in mind in this transfer window and others before it, and a clear idea on how much they are prepared to spend but is this really shrewd business or just ‘same old Celtic’, penny pinching?
Nicolas Kuhn on his way to Como. Photo social media
Since the summer window opened for business we have recruited no fewer than five players with a sixth on the way in the shape of Shin Yamada, and more likely to arrive with the likes of Michel Ange Balikwisha and possibly Justin De Haas heavily rumoured to be arriving through the Celtic park doors.
Kieran Tierney arrived on freedom of contract, although you can expect him to be on a hefty salary, whilst Ross Doohan and Callum Osmand also arrived as free agents.
Celtic’s new signing Benjamin Nygren at Celtic Park. Photo Celtic FC
Fees were however splashed out on Benjamin Nygren who cost a modest £1.5 million, whilst Hayato Inamura cost a lowly £250,000. Incoming striker Shin Yamada will cost £1.5 million with the likes of Michel Ange Balikwisha and Justin De Haas valued at around £4 million each, all of whom who had or still do have just a year remaining on their contracts.
Granted KT would have been out of our reach had a fee been involved whilst the rest of the signings and proposed signings would have cost much more if it wasn’t for their contract situation, but can that be described as good business or just plain old penny pinching? Especially when we have a £20 million plus burning a hole in our pocket.
Brendan Rodgers manager of Celtic meets fans before the game Cork City v Celtic, Pre Season Friendly, Football, SuperValu Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Cork, Ireland – 0 Jul 2025Cork SuperValu Pairc Ui Chaoimh Ireland Photo Lorraine O’Sullivan Shutterstock
Celtic, as Brendan Rodgers has revealed over the last week, were well aware of Nicolas Kuhn’s wish to leave last season – maybe it was that disgraceful elbow smash across the face that went unpunished at Ibrox at the start of the year that made him decide Scottish football wasn’t for him.
Celtic would also have known of the significant interest in the player whose agent would have known Celtic’s asking price IF they were to allow the German winger to leave this summer. Kuhn’s agent , armed with that information, was able to find a suitable club in Como willing and able to pay Celtic’s asking price.
Jeremie Frimpong, Liverpool’s latest signing. Photo Liverpool FC
That money, which will be around £16.5 million is likely to be the extent of Celtic’s financial expenditure in the transfer window this summer, although the club might go a little further and re-invest our Frimpong windfall cash after his move from Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool.
Let’s round that up to £20m which will be significantly more than any other club but we all know Celtic have the funds to spend double that sum if the desire and the ambition was there, which takes us back to the earlier question shrewd business or just same old Celtic, penny pinching? It’s a matter of opinion – what’s yours?
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
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The question is a no brainer – it’s the same old penny pinching. I would add though to say that of the cheap buys they’re making, Doohan, Inamura, Osmand and Yamada are unlikely to see much first team football. So where does that leave the team, now lighter than ever on quality with the exits of Kyogo and Kuhn, not to mention the long-term injury to Jota. It’s going to be a tough season ahead and I think we can rule out any progress in the Champions League. The only player who looks decent in terms of quality is Nygren, the rest are second rate desperation buys, in my opinion.
Absolutely same old celtic biscuit tin mentality buy cheap hopefully 1 or 2 of those players make the grade shocking fans need to stop buying merchandise stop buying crazy tickets prices and boycott the games till better quality player’s come through the parkhead doors brendan Rodgers must be sick n tired of this board he will walk who can blame him lawell to blame along with Nicholson for this transfer policy buy cheap sell big they have been lucky but that will come to an end
It’s important for the club to bring in project signings, we’ve been successful in that regard with some players, less so with others.
Rodgers will be looking for his targets too though. Liverpool and Rodgers ended up in a mix of Recruitment team signings and Rodgers signings. Remember Firmino and Benteke? One recruitment, one Rodgers.
That didn’t last, but if Liverpool did it, perhaps Rodgers and Recruitment team have a similar arrangement. Perhaps we’ll see more movement soon. We’ve been active and that will do me for now, profiles of players also look good. This time last year we were still six days away from our first signing. It’s never how much we spend that worries me, it’s the competency of the dealmakers in getting deals concluded that always irks me, always feel we’re willing to spend but often perhaps not got our first choices.
Miserable, embarrassing & totally lacking any REAL ambition whatsoever – it’s true what everyone else is saying… “Paralyzed” by the thought of spending money/funds. We are sadly, the most greed-ridden club in World Football!
Even if we had £200m sitting in the bank, it would make absolutely NO DIFFERENCE to our detached, loathed “Dinosaur” Board…
Yawn people here thinking they are scouts again and think they know what’s best for the club. The clubs transfer model has never budged and it has been successful for us. The only season that was an outlier was last season spending big on Arne and Idah. Otherwise this season is no different from the rest and guess what, we have still been champions for season after season.
I don’t think you can make a judgement until we see the guys play. Only then can we decide whether it was penny pinching at that area of the market or us, like O’Riley, finding a nugget.
Osmond may end up keeping Idah out the side, does that make us frugal for signing a really good player or conversely bad for spending £9.5M on Idah last summer.
I, like everyone else, would like to see us go for a higher calliber player but I would suggest either of last season big buys won games on their own.
Everyone seemed impressed by the young Japanese boy the other night but, like all the guys, it’s early days yet.
The pressure will start to come if, given our current bank balance, we fail to qualify for the Champions League, and then the new players look out their depth in the SPL.
I think that Celtic have a shrewd strategy and when you buy 10m pound players the hit rate will be the same, so they will probably come out with one big signing, which I would regard as 8m plus. 25m is the ceiling for selling and with ffp biting English teams the Kuhn fee is probably a new norm for a big fee , it’s not easy to find a player for 10m to make a massive impact on Celtic as we would already value our players mostly above that so smart scouting and being able to have a lot of fails makes sense.