Celtic were already facing a daunting Champions League task after being paired with six-time European champions Bayern Munich in the knockout play-off round.
But Hoops fans were hopeful that in the four days between Friday’s draw in Nyon and the close of the transfer window the Parkhead hierarchy would strengthen to give Brendan Rodgers a fighting chance of leading the club into the last-16 for the first time in 12 years. But has he been left with a water pistol going into a gunfight?
Certainly, there was a feeling of frustration among the majority of the Celtic legions, particularly at the failure to land the replacement striker for Kyogo that Rodgers craved. Jeffrey Schlupp was brought in on loan from Crystal Palace ahead of the 11pm deadline on loan and can provide both full back and wide left cover following the departures of Luis Palma and Alex Valle. Jota was of course the big one of the January window after the returning hero was signed from Rennes but failure to get a frontman is the concern for fans, especially Adam Idah was ruled out against Bayern Munich for any reason.
But what about the German giants themselves? Vincent Kompany doesn’t have any problems in the striking department with £82million man Harry Kane to call upon. The England captain was already part of a multi-talented, expensively assembled squad but they addedin January, albeit free transfer Tom Bischof won’t arrive until the summer from Hoffenheim.
Their biggest outlay was to splash out £6m on a young BACK-UP keeper to Manuel Neuer with Jonas Urbig arriving from Cologne with “great potential”. They even paid Los Angeles FC almost £1.5m on Gambian teenager Bajung Darboe to play for their second team.
Record Sport crunches the numbers and finds the Germans spent almost HALF A BILLION pounds on transfer fees and wages – SIX TIMES Celtic’s outlay, with Kane’s fee alone worth more than Celtic’s entire squad. Here”s how the squads compare in terms of fees, underlining the task facing Celtic.
Bayern Munich
Goalkeepers
Manuel Neuer (£13m)
Daniel Peretz (£4m)
Jonas Urbig (£6m)
Defenders
Dayot Upamecano (£35m)
Min-jae Kim fee (£40m)
Hiroki Ito (£20m)
Eric Dier (£4m)
Alphonso Davies (£11m)
Raphael Guerreiro (free)
Josip Stanisic (Academy)
Sacha Boey (£25m)
Midfielders
Joshua Kimmich (£6m)
Aleksandar Pavlovic (Academy)
Joao Palhinha (£43m)
Konrad Laimer (free)
Leon Goretzka (free)
Jamal Musiala (£200,000)
Serge Gnabry (£5m)
Kingsley Coman (£18m)
Gabriel Vidovic (Academy)
Attackers
Harry Kane (£82m)
Michael Olise (£50m)
Leroy Sane (£55m)
Thomas Muller (Academy)
Total squad cost – £427.2
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)
Maik Nawrocki (£4.3m)
Cameron Carter-Vickers (£6m)
Anthony Ralston (Academy)
Stephen Welsh (Academy)
Midfielders
Reo Hatate (£1.4m)
Jota (8m)
Nicolas Kuhn (£3m)
Yang Hyun-jun (£2m)
Luke McCowan (£1m)
Arne Engels (£11m)
Jeffrey Schlupp (loan)
Paulo Bernardo (£3.5m)
Callum McGregor (Academy)
James Forrest (Academy)
Adam Montgomery (Academy)
Attackers
Adam Idah (£9.5m)
Daizen Maeda (£1.6m)
Johnny Kenny (£125,000)
Total squad cost – £69.4million