Kenny Dalglish credits Celtic for bringing in £45m of player sales this year

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Celtic legend Kenny Dalglish reckons the club have done good work to rake in £45m in transfer fees during the 2021 calendar year.

Players such as Jeremie Frimpong, Kristoffer Ajer and Odsonne Edouard have all moved on to other leagues for fees north of £10m.

Others, like Patryk Klimala, have also been sold in multi-million-pound transfers.

Dalglish believes the outgoings at Celtic have been just as important as the incomings.

Ultimately he thinks that Celtic are in a strong position than they were six months ago, and has congratulated Ange Postecoglou and Dominic McKay on the work done.

Writing in his Sunday Post column, Dalglish said: “Celtic sold Odsonne Edouard to Crystal Palace for around £15-million. That was a good cheque to get for a player who wanted to leave.

Ryan Christie, meanwhile, moved to Bournemouth for around £2m. Normally, he would have commanded a much-higher fee, but he only had five months to run on his contract.

“So, again, the Parkhead club have used the market to move on players to the best of the club’s ability. In this calendar year, Celtic sold six or seven players and they have brought in around £45m.

“All in all, if you look at where Celtic were six weeks ago to where they are now, they are clearly in a better place.

“Ange Postecoglou has just completed his first transfer window as manager, and he must feel happy with the business done. It was also new chief executive, Dominic McKay’s first venture into the world of transfers, and he can be satisfied with his work.”

What the majority of fans will care about is the strength of the squad and the team on the pitch. Competing for trophies is a constant requirement while balancing the books.

However, you can’t really begrudge the club for taking money for Kristoffer Ajer, Odsonne Edouard and Ryan Christie given they all made it clear they wanted to leave. That’s how football works these days.

Although some of the money has already been reinvested back into the squad, the club are hopefully again sitting on decent cash reserves after pandemic problems ate into the bank balance.

That will be useful in January when Postecoglou may well want to add two or three more, first-team quality players, to the group at Celtic Park.

The money brought into the club is only useful if it benefits our future.

In other news, John Hartson marvels at the “someone quite special” Celtic have signed this summer.