Celtic have accrued plenty of cash in the Champions League and now they have to work out how best to spend it.
A former Celtic star reckons Brendan Rodgers has shown his mettle in Europe – but now risky business awaits Dermot Desmond and the Parkhead board.
The Hoops came back down to earth with a bump on Saturday as they lost 2-1 to Hibs in the Premiership. But it was a promising midweek for the champions who drew 1-1 away from home in the Champions League against Bayern Munich, painfully exiting 3-2 on aggerate from their knockout round play-off tie thanks to an Alphonso Davies goal in second half stoppage time in the deciding leg.
With a big lead in the league and hot favourites to pull off a Treble, former player Kris Commons says the progress in Europe by Celtic is clear to see. He told PLZ: “It just shows you where they have actually came from, where we are actually able to have a conversation openly about how disappointed we are that Celtic didn’t manage to beat the European giants of Bayern Munich.
It just shows you the magnitude of the job that Brendan Rodgers and his backroom staff have been able to put together. So the fact that we’re in a position now and looking back on that result, there’s got to be huge amounts of positives that they can take on into next season’s European campaign.
They’ve certainly come a long way in the sense of the Borussia Dortmund game. They really did bounce back with the Atalanta game. They’ve shown that they were more than capable of going up against really, really good opposition and not just going toe-to-toe, actually being in a position where they could have eliminated Bayern Munich. Now that just shows you not only the resilience that they’ve shown throughout this campaign, but the confidence that they’ve got.
“I think one thing that Brendan Rodgers was never able to really do before the people before him was get that big scalp in Europe. I think what he has done now is not only been able to put in performances away from home against the likes of Atalanta and produce matches at home when he was obviously first in charge vs Man City, he’s actually gave, I would say, the Celtic supporters a real hope that things are heading in the right direction in Europe.
I think if you can be that determined, that resilient, tactically brilliant away from home, then it gives you a huge amount of confidence going into the sort of clientele that they will be trying to get to Celtic Park next year to get to that next level.
Commons does have a concern that with more money comes more problems for the Celtic powerbrokers in terms of how best to spend that wisely. He believes major shareholder Desmond will unlock deals for Rodgers in the financial ballpark of Arne Engels’ £11m move on a regular basis but cash banked from Europe.
Commons added: “Spending money, getting them to the next level is going to be a really, really risky business because with the windfall that they have received this year, they’ve got to spend that wisely. I think what Celtic have been very, very good at in the past is buying in players and either selling them on for a profit or getting in players that will be £4m and getting a really good run from them.
I think the most important thing for Celtic and especially Brendan is to consider what you want to do in Europe. I would say if you are getting beat, if you’re in a sort of environment that you are getting results like Bayern Munich away, where you lose 1-1, you draw 1-1, you want to try and eradicate and eliminate the 6 or 7-0’s, which obviously Celtic have been known for in the previous years.
You want to go and identify players that are between six and ten million pounds that could potentially be worth 20-30 million. I think obviously next season there’ll be a few more people that will be invested into the squad. if you’re looking for investment quality, you’re looking to take it to that next step or at least give you a chance for that next step, then you’ll be looking at players in the bracket of 10, 11, 12 million at minimum.
