Money doesn’t seem to be much of a problem to Celtic just now but a further £1m will be heading their way from UEFA after last night’s delayed Champions League tie between Dinamo Zagreb and AEK Athens.
The Greek side came up with a very late winner to progress to the play off round which ensures that Celtic are one step higher up the 10 year ranking table that distributes a significant pot of UEFA money.
For a couple of weeks the ins and outs of Dominik Livakovic’s future seemed to be of interest to Celtic fans hoping that a new goalkeeper would be signed up.
For more than a month the Croatian internationalist has been strongly linked with Feberbahce but for one reason or another it hasn’t gone through, keeping alive a flicker of hope that Livakovic might be Celtic bound.
The keeper will gift Dinamo a place in the Europa League group draw with AEK Athens going forward to play Antwerp for a place in the group stage draw.
AEK Athens knocked Dinamo Zagreb of the CL qualifiers with 2 injury time goals, including a 99th minute winner.
As Zagreb were above Celtic in the 10 year rankings we’ll get an extra €1.137M from the coefficient payment.
Insert your own “more money we won’t spend” joke.
— Moravcik67 (@Moravcik67_) August 19, 2023
Unusually money doesn’t seem to be a problem for Celtic in their transfer dealings although every £1m comes in handy as would some Champions League win bonuses.
That is the currency that motivates Brendan Rodgers but as it stands it is hard to make a case that Celtic are better prepared for the Champions League that they were a year ago.
Jota scored 50% of last season’s goals but will be watching this season’s competition from elsewhere while there is uncertainly elsewhere in the squad.
Maik Nawrocki and Gustaf Lagerbielke could be upgrades on Carl Starfelt but the Swede’s only Champions League appearance last season was in the Bernabeu.
Strangely Moritz Jenz did play in all six matches with Cameron Carter-Vickers missing a couple of the fixtures.
At today’s match at Kilmarnock Brendan Rodgers is likely to be asked about transfer developments, it is unlikely that there has been any movement since Friday’s media conference.
The early expectations of a marquee signing, or two have gradually been watered down over the course of the transfer window, in reality bringing in two signings of the standard of Jota or Carter-Vickers would be seen as a good development, the rota of projects and development players is full with some certain to miss the cut for the Champions League squad.
