Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers promised January transfer kitty
Wednesday 21 November 2018 19:18, UK
Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell admits he was frustrated by the club's summer transfer business but says there will be money available for Brendan Rodgers in January.
Rodgers was handed £10m to sign Odsonne Edouard but the Celtic boss was less than impressed with the failure to land John McGinn from Hibernian.
However, Lawwell says there is money for the manager to spend and has promised the club will look to do better in January transfer window.
He told CelticTV: "We did bring in a number of players. We brought in a record transfer fee in Odsonne Edouard at £10mn. We brought Lewis Morgan back, Scott Bain was signed permanently and we brought in four others.
"But I think it's fair to say it was a frustrating time for us all. The market is very, very difficult, very complicated and despite everybody working so hard to strengthen the squad further, I think we all left the window a little bit frustrated.
"That's not due to the fact that we didn't want to invest, there is money there that we will invest. Our priority in every window is to come out stronger than we went in.
"And we are intent that going into January we will again make every effort to make sure the squad is strengthened."
He added: "We're in great shape. We've got a very strong balance sheet.
"Last year we made around £17m profit. That was mainly through the sale of players. We had a sell-on (fee) for Virgil van Dijk and also had a transfer fee for Stuart Armstrong.
"So we can see that the club is actually break-even with Champions League (revenue). We reinvest everything that comes in. All the Champions League money goes back into the club.
"We have cash in the bank, we're looking to invest that in the club, into the squad, into the team and to our facilities.
"So for the challenges that we will face going ahead, we're in a really great place."
