money men not flavour of the month

On the face of it we should be happy these days. Four wins out of five in the SPL and, more importantly, qualification for the Champions League thanks to two outstanding 4:0 wins away from home in Europe, and believe me, there was a time not too long ago when that last phrase could have come straight out of one of JK Rowling's Harry Potter novels. What's more, all of the players who performed so well for us last season have been retained and there are signs that there are one or two youngsters of real talent beginning to stake a claim for a first team place.

But this is Celtic and there are already rumblings of discontent among the huddled masses. Grievances are sure to be aired at the forthcoming AGM and, like the first cuckoo of spring, the first 'sack the board' banner of the present regime appeared at the Livingston game, fluttering over the advertising hoardings atop the lower tier of the North Stand, defiantly facing the directors box, before being brusquely removed by the ever-attentive stewards. 'Where is all the money going?' seems to be the burning issue of the day.

According to the audited accounts, £6 million of it has gone on something called 'amortisation'. Why? Well that's another question which will have to smoulder until we find out if and when OFM is staying or going at the end of the season.

Where the money hasn't gone, to any great extent, is on buying new players. This in itself has been enough to awake some of the revolutionaries from their slumber. 'You have to speculate to accumulate' has become a popular shibboleth round Celtic Park these days among those clamouring for the acquisition of new players.

But football is a risky business and the strategy advocated by the spenders among us has no guarantee of paying off. At best it shortens the odds in your favour. At worst it brings with it the risk of financial meltdown. Just ask Newcastle United. Since June last year they have spent £22.5 million on three players (Woodgate £9m, Bramble £5m and Viana £8.5m) and they didn't qualify for the Champions League.

Barrow Bhoy's article on Celtic's financial position in NTV 113 wasn't so much a wake-up call as a cold bucket of water in the face. In the current financial climate it is important to get the level of debt down or continue to pay the equivalent of three good players a year on servicing it. Which in turn leads to accusations that the board are not as committed as the fans - or even the manager - to taking the club as far as it can go in this season's Champions League. That they are content to bank the money for making up the numbers in the first group phase without funding the ambitions of Martin O'Neill. Qualification to the knockout phase of this year's tournament will be acceptable to most of us as progress, although even that will be tough given the quality of the opposition.

Looking on the bright side, the players might be another year older and they do have their limitations, but this is an experienced team, having played an incredible 29 European ties since the start of the 2001-02 season. If OFM can push them to reproduce the kind of form they showed at Anfield then the other teams in there won't be relishing taking on the Hoops.

Whatever happens, at least the bean counters will be happy, and this is where we came in. It would be heartening to think that the directors are actually planning ahead and preparing for next year when it will be necessary to replace at least three quality players and they will, as a result of the kind of prudence that makes Gordon Brown look like Viv Nicholson, have enough readies to shop around at the decent end of the transfer market.

In the meantime, Brian Quinn must play out his public role as a cross between one of Stalin's Five Year Plan apparatchiks and Ebeneezer Scrooge. You never know. By the time the January transfer window is looming Jacob Marley might have appeared to him in the spectral shape of Kevin Kelly, dragging behind him a chain made of padlocked biscuit tins, dusty wallets and cold kale sandwiches. At the ghastly sight of this ghost of Christmas Past the PLC Chairman might see the error of his ways, start allocating money for new players and all of us Tiny Tims can have a happy new year.