Celtic spent big to bring in Arne Engels from Augsburg for £11million – but it’s a whole different ball stratosphere of spending they will come up against when they face Atalanta.
The Scottish Premiership champions have already been taught some harsh lessons about the gap in quality when they step up against the Champions League big guns – with Borussia Dortmund running over the top of Brendan Rodgers’ side in Germany. But the numbers make grim reading again for Celtic as they come up against the Europa League winners who boast a squad work more than double the amount of the Parkhead dressing room.
Rodgers’ will also come up against one of his biggest Celtic transfer regrets in the shape of Ademola Lookman. The winger was sensational in the Europa League Final, as his stunning hat-trick decked undefeated Bayer Leverkusen and led the Serie A side to their first major trophy since 1963.
Former Parkhead recruitment guru Lee Congerton revealed that the boss was desperate to bring him to Glasgow’s east end during his first spell at Celtic. Rodgers would eventually get his man while in charge at Leicester CIty – but was unable to make the loan move from RB Leipzig permanent before his £12.5m move to Atalanta. The player is now valued at over £40m.
He said in the wake of Lookman’s Europa heroics: “When he knew that we weren’t able to take him, he took him then to Atalanta and he has done absolutely brilliant there so I am so happy, the goals he scored! Especially the second and third ones.
“He scored some massive goals for me at Leicester, he scored the winning goal in a game against Liverpool at home, it was a brilliant individual goal. The only sad part for us [at Leicester] was that, at the end of that season, we could have bought him for £14million but you think back to that summer, we couldn’t sign any players.”
Atalanta
Goalkeepers
- Rui Patricio (free)
- Marco Carnesecchi (£1.75m)
- Francesco Rossi (academy)
Defenders
- Rafael Toloi (£2.9m)
- Odilon Kossounou (£4.5m)
- Isak Hien (£7m)
- Ben Godfrey (£10m)
- Raoul Bellanova (£20.9m)
- Berat Djimsiti (free)
- Matteo Ruggeri (academy)
- Sead Kolasinac (free)
- Davide Zappacosta (£8m)
- Tomasso Del Lungo (academy)
Midfielders
- Juan Cuadrado (free)
- Mario Pasalic (£13.4m)
- Ederson (£19m)
- Marten de Roon (£13.7m)
- Lazar Samardzic (£16.6m)
- Marco Brescianini (loan)
- Alberto Manzoni (academy)
Attackers
- Nicolo Zaniolo (loan)
- Ademola Lookman (£12.5m)
- Charles De Ketelaere (£20m)
- Mateo Retegui (£23.3m)
- Vanja Vlahovic (£333k)
Total squad cost – £164.9m
Celtic
Goalkeepers
- Kasper Schmeichel (free)
- Viljami Sinisalo (£1m)
- Scott Bain (free)
Defenders
- Alistair Johnston (£3.5m)
- Greg Taylor (£3m)
- Liam Scales (£500,000)
- Auston Trusty (£6m)
- Alex Valle (loan)
- Maik Nawrocki (£4.3m)
- Cameron Carter-Vickers (£6m)
- Anthony Ralston (Academy)
- Stephen Welsh (Academy)
Midfielders
- Reo Hatate (£1.4m)
- Luis Palma (£3.5m)
- Nicolas Kuhn (£3m)
- Yang Hyun-jun (£2m)
- Luke McCowan (£1m)
- Arne Engels (£11m)
- Paulo Bernardo (£3.5m)
- Callum McGregor (Academy)
- James Forrest (Academy)
- Adam Montgomery (Academy)
Attackers
- Kyogo Furuhashi (£4.5m)
- Adam Idah (£9.5m)
- Daizen Maeda (£1.6m)
Total squad cost – £69.3m