Push The Boat Out: Why Celtic Should Go For Broke This Month

After last night’s incredible 5-0 victory over Astana, it seems certain that Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic will qualify for the Champions League for the second season running. With qualification all but guaranteed for once, I feel that Celtic should roll the dice, and gamble on making some big money signings.

In previous seasons, qualifying for the Champions League has turned into an extremely nervy affair, with Celtic usually not knowing if we’ve qualified until after the second leg, and as a result we have had to rush to make signings with only a week to go of the transfer deadline. This season is different though, we have qualified with two weeks to go, so we aren’t forced into a race against time to make any signings.

This brings me onto our ongoing pursuit of Patrick Roberts, who we have constantly been linked to since his original loan spell ended. Apparently City are in favour of a loan deal, and are wanting more than £2 million for the loan. I would much prefer Celtic putting in a bid of around £10 million for Roberts - we can include a sell on deal if need be - and if City don’t accept it then move on to other targets.

I know that spending huge sums of money isn’t the way Celtic usually do things, but let’s say that even if we do spend big money on Roberts then if he excels for us in the Champions League then we can sell him on at a profit of some kind. We have the ideal opportunity now to take Celtic even further ahead than the rest of Scottish football, as last night we won without the likes of Dembele and Boyata. We’re under no pressure now, tomorrow we can make a statement that we mean business by submitting a big money bid for Roberts.