Celtic fans are rightly impatient at the moment.
There’s less than a month left of the transfer window to make signings for the new season, yet the Hoops hierarchy have yet to properly back Brendan Rodgers in the market.
Celtic have only spent around £4m on eight players this summer, one of whom being youth starlet Isaac English from Greenock Morton.
The Parkhead giants are cash rich and Rodgers wants the board to deliver the funds he needs to ensure his squad is ready for domestic and European competitions.
But is the delay in big spending really solely the fault of the Celtic board?
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Marvin Bartley & Gordon Dalziel disagree on Celtic transfers wait
Clyde 1 Superscoreboard pundit Marvin Bartley has suggested that the wait could actually be down to a number of Celtic targets holding out to see if the club qualify for the league phase of the Champions League.
That could involve the likes of Michel-Ange Balikwisha, who has reportedly been in talks with the Bhoys for weeks and weeks now, despite his agent denying the fact.
Bartley thinks it’s a plausible reason, but co-pundit Gordon Dalziel was having none of it and thinks the prestige of playing for Celtic regardless of the competitions they are in is usually the deciding factor.
Bartley: “Do you think there’s potential players out there waiting to sign for Celtic, or who Celtic want, are saying: ‘We need to wait to see if you’re in the Champions League first because that’s the competition we want to play in?
“I think there will be a calibre of player who Celtic are looking for who will come in and enhance your starting XI rather than squad players who will be saying: ‘If you’re in the Champions League, 100% I will come and sign. If you’re in the Europa League, I’ll probably look elsewhere.
“That might be something that is slowing the transfers down as well.”
Duncan: “Do you think that happens yeah?”
Dalziel: “Well I’ve got to disagree. If you think you are coming to Celtic, the prestige, the size of the club, everything about it. I know you want to play at the highest level, I take that onboard.
“But I don’t think they’ll be sitting there basically saying to their agent: ‘Right we’ll watch these two games. If they are successful, we’re signing. If not, we’ll look elsewhere.”
How much do Celtic have in the bank?
It would be foolish to guess how much Celtic have in their transfer budget for this summer, and how that all operates behind the scenes.
But what we do know is that Celtic have mountains of cash in their bank balance that could easily go towards funding Rodgers’ squad development.
In June 2024, Celtic had £77.2m in their bank balance. But that figure dropped in February to £65.4m.
That makes perfect sense given the Hoops spent over £30m last summer on player recruitment, the biggest outlay being on Arne Engels for £11m.
But to have well over £60m in the bank and reach August 6 with just £4m spent on players is inexcusable.
Perhaps Bartley is right, however, in that Celtic can’t speed up the transfer process until they have qualified for the Champions League.
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