Over the next two evenings Celtic and Club Brugge will attempt to move towards the group stage of the Champions League, even with a number of variables each club can anticipate around £40m all in from hosting four matches in UEFA’s prime competition.
Both teams go about business in very different ways.
Being outwith the five richest leagues in Europe is a clear financial disadvantage, those circumstances have to be overcome to have a fighting chance of success. Again both teams take a very different approach.
Brugge have a current UEFA co-efficient of 60.75, Celtic are 23 places further back in 56th place with a co-efficient of 35.
Clearly Brugge are a very efficient football club, they do well in European competitions which gives them a platform to build on.
They plan to be in this season’s Champions League, if they fall short they can expect to go deep into the Europa League while planning to win back the Belgian title to give them a guaranteed place in next season’s Champions League.
All of that from a club that plays in the Jan Breyde Stadium with a capacity of just 29,000 seats. Less than half the capacity of Celtic Park, at every match Celtic are bringing in substantially more income than the Belgian side.
At Celtic and Brugge a Player Trading Model is essential, Celtic are constantly told that they have a brilliant trading model, some of the more deluded claim that they are the envy of every other club in Europe.
Whoever makes that claim must have missed the summer of 2023 when Yang Hyun-jun, Luis Palma and Marco Tilo were signed as wingers, Odin Thiago Holm and Kwon Hyeok-ku as midfielders with Maik Nawrocki and Gus Lagerbielke in central defence.
In one window the £18m profit made on selling Jota was wiped out, with the not so Magnificent Seven all put on five year contracts.
In the not so distant past the ‘admired’ Player Trading Model came up with Marian Shved and Vakoun Bayo in January 2019, a year later it was Patryk Klimala and Ismaila Soro, in the summer of 2021 £10m was flushed away on Albian Ajeti and Vasilas Barkas.
Preparing for this season’s Champions League qualifiers Brugge have signed five first team ready players averaging £5m each.
Celtic have spent around £2.5-3m to bring in two first team players- Shin Yamada and Ben Nygren. Kieran Tierney is an outstanding free agent.
Clearly Brugge has a strategy and process to succeed, Celtic seem to wing it, at the moment the main speculation is around a 38-year-old striker rejoining his former manager…
Transfermarkt is a fairly accurate source of transfer fees and details.
Brugges Departures
Selling players is standard practice at Brugge, it is what they do, part of the process. They know how long that good players are likely to stay, plan their departures and get the maximum price.
Players are sold at the time that suits the club with replacements identified or already signed. It all makes business sense, it isn’t going to put the club at risk of liquidation.
Brugges arrivals
Five first team signings averaging out at 6.2m euros, the equivalent of £5m each, exactly the sort of market that Brendan Rodgers wants Celtic to operate at, last summer with proper negotiations Auston Trusty, Adam Idah and Arne Engels could have been signed for around £18m and been involved with Celtic’s pre-season training to make them better prepared for the competitive action.
Instead Celtic paid £26m with Idah arriving on August 14 with Trusty and Engels signing on August 30. Celtic overpaid for them and missed out on crucial training time for players moving to Scotland.
If Celtic had an efficient Recruitment set up those deals would have been advanced in June, if clubs were acting up attention would switch to a different target. As it is selling clubs know that they can sit tight and watch Celtic move towards their asking price then bump something extra on since there is only a day or two left in the transfer window, it is genuinely now or never.
Brugges have a 45m euros transfer surplus but have gained five first team ready players, their supporters are pleased with the business, not complacent, they trust that their club are on the front foot, striving forward.
Celtic departures
Basically one departure, Nicolas Kuhn bringing in around £17m. The fee for Gus Lagerbielke and the Jeremie Frimpong add on are tidy sums but with such a small squad any loss is felt. Kyogo Furuhashi was sold and not replaced in January, Kuhn was sold at the start of July, after seven pre-season matches and three competitive games Rodgers still doesn’t have an adequate replacement for the German, the options are James Forrest and Yang Hyun-jun who are probably both most effective as impact subs, coming off the bench for the last 20-30 minutes.
Celtic arrivals
With gaping holes in the squad known since at least January Celtic have spent around £2.5m on transfer fees so far in the transfer window.
Money isn’t everything, getting Kieran Tierney to sign a five year contract is absolutely incredible business, a clear upgrade on Greg Taylor but it isn’t a transfer strategy, if a KT deal comes up once in a generation it is good going.
Ben Nygren is again great business, a ready made first team player but in a position that Celtic are already well stocked for players, the Swede becomes the sixth midfielder with just three places to fill. If only there was similar competition in attack.
Daizen Maeda is Celtic’s best left-winger and striker but can only play in one position, as the only left-winger he starts in that position and is likely to play the full 90 minutes in both of the matches against Kairat.
Elsewhere Rodgers has to manage his forward resources very carefully because he has been left badly short. As soon as Jota was injured at the end of April the brakes should have been put on the sale of Kuhn. He was contracted until May 2028, Celtic ought to have had control of the situation but unfortunately the Balance Sheet has control over the team sheet as the line up at home to Kairat will highlight.
Celtic ‘strategy’
Discussing Kuhn’s imminent move at the start of July Rodgers told The Sun:
He’s done brilliant for us in the 18 months and if he does end up going and signing up a Como then it’s great business all round. I think it really helps us. The earlier, the better, really.
Because if a player wants to go then I don’t see the point in them hanging about. Really, if you can get the deal done and you get the valuation, what you think is right, then do it, move on and look to get the replacements in.
Despite flagging up the need for replacements Michael Nicholson has failed to deliver a new winger or the striker to take over from Kyogo Furuhashi.
Why Celtic operate this way is hard to justify, with a bigger support and stadium they should at least be able to match Brugge in achievements if not surpass the club that is almost of the doorstep of German clubs with Augsburg signing up Engels then selling him on to Celtic and Champions League football.
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