Celtic won’t get anything close to the high seven-figure fee received from Leicester City for Brendan Rodgers if Ange Postecoglou moves to Tottenham Hotspur over the next few days, but the club will still look for something.
Postecoglou is widely reported to be on the brink of accepting the vacant post at Spurs, ending his two-year reign in Glasgow as leader of the Bhoys. It’s expected that the deal is finalised in the coming days.
When Rodgers left Celtic he was in the middle of a lucrative multi-year contract and took a whole raft of staff with him to the Foxes. It’s been reported that the club banked as much as £9m for his exit. [The Telegraph]
However, the Australian is on a 12-month rolling contract and is unlikely to leave with many, if any, staff that are currently at Lennoxtown. A rolling contract of that nature means that he always has a year left on his deal, on any given day. That means Spurs only need to buy out 12 months’ worth of his wages, which is obviously well below £9m.
John Percy at The Telegraph has reported tonight that Celtic will indeed demand that fee when Spurs come calling for Postecoglou.
Some Celtic observers and fans have been urging to tie down the manager to a long-term deal so that value was found when cash-rich clubs inevitably turned their attention to him.
It’s unknown if that was even offered and it certainly wasn’t signed by Postecoglou.
So, the Bhoys won’t be bolstered by a substantial windfall through all this. However, the club remains in a very strong financial position when considering who to appoint next as manager.
Record annual turnover beyond £100m is likely to be announced later this year and there’s already a guarantee of UEFA Champions League group stage cash next season. Any new manager is likely to have a significant transfer budget available to him. We await an update on who that might be.
In other news, Why Celtic are in an incredibly strong state for Ange Postecoglou successor search.
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