Celtic have, quite rightly, this season been lauded for their work in the transfer window.
Ange Postecoglou has been backed brilliantly by the Celtic board and Michael Nicholson has done an outstanding job in making sure the targets Ange wants, he gets.
But it’s not only the club’s ability to source talent that has impressed football pundit, Noel Whelan.
It is also the ability to sell players for big money.
You can go as far back as Fraser Forster, Victor Wanyama and Ki Sung-Yeung to see how the club’s talent spotting has served us well to the present day of Odsonne Edouard, Moussa Dembele and Kieran Tierney.
Speaking to Football Insider, Whelan said, “When you’ve got players who are a standout, there’s always going to be speculation.
“Celtic are a huge club, but they’re in Scotland. It’s difficult, as we’ve seen, to turn down big money from Premier League outfits.
“This is what keeps them sustainable and allows them to go out and get three more players to strengthen their squad.
“They’re very much like Borussia Dortmund. They might let one big player go for £20 million, but they’ll go out and get many more in the door.
“It’s that kind of turnaround – which means they’re not weakened.
“This is how they keep competitive and sustainable – they’re the Dortmund of Scotland.”
With the Hoop’s track record of selling players for a huge profit, it is a business model that has served us well as the club does need to find a way to be able to generate money to help us compete in Europe as we are hamstrung being locked into TV deal that pays a pittance to the winners of the SPFL.
The club has already unearthed some gems under Ange over the last 15 months and with players performing well in the Champions League, it won’t be long before the club is selling our next star for big money.
We are not the Dortmund of Scotland, Dortmund are the Celtic of Germany. This is the presumption of anyone who watches our team through the prisms of other leagues. We stalled big time in Europe, not because we’re a lesser Club, but because our board believed it so. As soon as we acted like the club we are, through new thinking in the board and dugout we seem to excel. We are CELTIC, we are who we are.