From the good old days of the 1990s, to present day in 2023.
Transfer business is something that Ange Postecoglou has always taken very seriously.
Working with some small budgets during his time as a No.1 throughout his career, it’s easy to see why the Australian is now enjoying the money Celtic have at their disposal when it comes to the market.
Since his arrival in the summer of 2021, the Scottish champions have spent in the ballpark of £40million. Of course, the net spend is actually a lot lower due to the sales of the likes of Ryan Christie, Odsonne Edouard and more recently, Josip Juranovic.
Like most managers involved in the game, Postecoglou feels the summer and winter windows can be a draining time, when in reality they’d much rather actually focus on purely footballing matters.
But with Alistair Johnston, Yuki Kobayashi, Tomoki Iwata and Oh Hyeon-guy all in the building, it’s very much a case of all the hard work that’s gone into such deals has been worth it.
“It’s important to this football club that we run a sustainable model,” said Postecoglou. “It’s not unique to us. In terms of clubs our size that’s what they do.
“It’s not about just spending money, it’s about spending money we have brought in and being strategic about it.
“If we were bringing in players who weren’t increasing in value then we wouldn’t be able to reinvest that into players to replace them.
“All those things have a knock-on effect and when you look at our current squad we have a great deal of value in that squad.
“If we do have to replace someone, we will have the funds to replace them with a good player and I think that’s important.
“It’s not about how much we spend, it’s what we spend it on. That’s much more important because I take that responsibility very seriously. We are not spending money we don’t have.
“Throughout supporters or throughout sponsorships or through our player sales, it’s all money that’s hard-earned. It’s not just given to us. We don’t just have a benefactor throwing money at us.
“So, it’s important that that money is spent wisely. I think we’ve done that in the time I’ve been here and we’ll continue to do that.”
Elaborating on his first dealings with football transfers, the Aussie looked back fondly to his time at South Melbourne.
He continued: “I think we spent a club record fee of $5000! We got a player from a rival and I remember we did the deal in the back of the president’s car after we’d picked him up from his house!
“Don’t ask me his name. It was like when I came here to Celtic - we did about seven or eight signings in two weeks. But yeah, things have changed.
“Thinking of my background, I’ve worked at clubs with fairly low budgets which would probably surprise people working here.
“But even back then I took that part of the role seriously.
“It’s about how you spend your money, whether that’s a small amount of a large amount.
“Look, when we were starting in the A-League we had a salary cap where we all spent the same which made it more of a challenge.
“If I spent my quid better than you spent your quid then I’d win the league. So, I’ve always taken that part of the job seriously.”
In terms of outgoings at the club, Josip Juranovic and Giorgos Giakoumakis are the headline names.
The former left last week to make way for Union Berlin in the Bundesliga. His move earned the Hoops around £10million for the World Cup right-back.
On Giakoumakis, his deadline day switch to Atlanta is believed to have pocketed the Hoops around £4million. While it’s not a great deal more than they paid for him only 18-months-ago, it’s still a profit.
It will take some time before all four of the club’s new boys settle in fully. And for that reason, it’s difficult to gage whether Celtic are in a stronger position coming out of January than they were heading into the month.
Postecoglou added: “Time will tell. In terms of our objectives going into this window I thought there were a couple of opportunities to strengthen the squad. Particularly with players identified early.
“We also knew that, more than likely, we would have a couple of exits in potentially key players like Josip and Giakoumakis.
“So, I certainly didn’t want to be sitting here on deadline day sweating over exits of guys like Josip or Giakoumakis without having identified replacements.
“The fact we have them already puts us in a really good position.
“With Josip and Giako going out we have brought in four players under the age of 24 for less money than we have brought in, so from that point of view we have achieved our objective.
“If they contribute to the level I think they can then I believe we will come out stronger.”
If anyone figured that Postecoglou would be bothered by any other club’s business, particularly on deadline day, then their fingers couldn’t be further from the pulse.
In fact, the Aussie joked that most of the time he doesn’t even want to have to deal with the ins and outs his own club’s dealings.
He said: “If I didn’t need to think about our own transfers, I’d be happy, mate, let alone think about somebody else’s.
“No, what I think is important is looking at our place and what we’re doing.
“We had some clear strategic objectives in this window and I’m pleased to say from my perspective anyway that everything we wanted to get done got done.
“I think that just shows we’re all aligned. What happens at other clubs doesn’t really affect us.”
