Hearts boss Derek McInnes has confirmed the club’s summer transfer net spend.
Celtic’s closest Scottish Premiership title challengers at the moment, the Jambos are five points clear at the top of the league.
They have won seven of their eight fixtures, while the Hoops have toiled to just five wins so far, losing poorly to Dundee on Sunday.
| Position | Team | Played MP | Won W | Drawn D | Lost L | For GF | Against GA | Diff GD | Points Pts |
| 1 |  Heart Of MidlothianHeart Of Midlothian | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 19 | 6 | 13 | 22 |
| 2 |  CelticCeltic | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 5 | 6 | 17 |
Hearts are full of confidence and face Celtic this weekend at Tynecastle, in what is the most anticipated fixture of the season to now.
Tony Bloom’s £10m investment into Hearts has worked wonders, with his Jamestown Analytics firm helping the Edinburgh club in their summer recruitment process.
Their signings have made a great impact on the squad, especially the likes of Claudio Braga and Alexandros Kyziridis.
Hearts did spend upwards of £3m, but they sold well to bring their net spend down to £300k at the most, as confirmed by McInnes on Wednesday at his pre-Celtic press conference.
And that, quite frankly, is embarrassing for the Bhoys.
McInnes says Hearts summer transfer net spend was £200-300k
McInnes has managed to build a squad that has cost very little to assemble, when you factor in Hearts’ transfer sales in the summer.
He said: “A lot has been made of the recruitment and all the rest of it. I think I need to say that more than half the team every week are players who I’ve inherited, players who are producing good form.
“Our net spend is probably only a couple of hundred thousand. We sell (James) Penrice and then we bring some players in, but our recruitment has been so smart and so strategic that we’re not spending fortunes to get in a position.
“I actually think with the net spend that we’ve had, with Penrice’s money coming in, our net spend is about £200,000 to £300,000.
“We have the beauty of Jamestown identifying some key players who will have a big influence on the team and certainly a big influence on the squad.
“We’re in this position because of a real connection with the fans, connection with the club, good work being done, and working really smartly.
“And hopefully we can continue to do that. I’m confident with the way the club’s set up that we’ll continue to improve.
“But it’s about players at the end of the day, getting over the line and putting in performances – and I think we’re getting that.”
Celtic way richer than Hearts but are worse off at the moment
McInnes’ net spend revelation makes a further mockery of Celtic’s summer transfer business when it was already seriously frowned upon.
Hearts may have Jamestown Analytics onside, but Celtic have tens of millions more than the Edinburgh club to splurge on new players.
At the year end June 2025, Celtic boasted £77.3m in cash reserves, yet only spent just over £14m of that on 11 players.
Right winger Nicolas Kuhn and beloved striker Kyogo were two players in need of replacing, but the Hoops signed two left wingers and a striker, the latter of which after the window had closed.
Celtic raked in £29.75m, which means they actually made a profit of just under £16m. No wonder the squad is weaker than it was last season.
But regardless, Celtic spent around £11m more than Hearts on a squad that was already infinitely stronger.
Yet the Hoops find themselves in dire form and five points off the pace.
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