bellamy - a test of the board's ambition?

Following on from his game winning hat trick against Dundee Utd. The Laptop Loyal have been quick to dismiss the chances of Celtic signing Craig Bellamy. We have been informed by those articulate, intelligent and impartial commentators on Scottish football that Celtic, with their biscuit tin mentality (they always have to get that dig in) won't be able to afford the estimated £6m transfer fee for the talented Welshman. And of course, even if they could scrape together the transfer fee, they would never be able to afford his annual salary. All of which shows incredible foresight, as none of us know what salary Craig Bellamy would be willing to accept in order to sign for Celtic.

While the Scottish Fish Wrappers seem certain that we could never afford Bellamy I'm not so sure. Let's do some sums and see what sort of figures appear.

With Juninho set to return to Brazil and Lambert's contract as Europe's best paid reserve player ending this summer that should free up in the region of £60k per week. Let's indulge in some wishful thinking and suggest that players such as Hedman, Fernandez and Sylla all leave the club in the Summer. That would save approximately another £40k per week in wages. Add 40 to 60 and you get £100k per week no longer fleeing the Celtic bank account every week in salaries to players who rarely start a meaningful first team game. £100k per week equates to £5m per year. That would suggest to me that a £6m transfer fee for Craig Bellamy is not beyond Celtic. £6m transfer fee paid up over a couple of years would be £3m per year or actually £2m per annum less than we save by not paying the above wages.

OK, I hear you say. But what if he wants a salary of £40k per week which equals £2m per year?

Well, according to 'informed sources' the new Nike agreement should bring Celtic an additional £5m per year. One would have thought that £2m of that could be used to fund the player's salary, if indeed he wants as much as £2m per year. As said earlier no one knows exactly what salary he would want. The media claim that Celtic couldn't afford Craig Bellamy's wages. If that is the case can they explain how on Earth Celtic can afford to pay his wages while he is here on loan? If we can afford his wages today why can't we afford them tomorrow?

This is far fetched given MON's unwillingness to move players on but he may decide to cash in on say Stilian Petrov, who is our biggest asset in terms of potential transfer fee to be received, and use that transfer money to start rebuilding the team. That could see one player eg Petrov leave and the money raised be used to bring in several other players.

This is entering the realms of the ridiculous now but MON may even sign some Bosmans which would further reduce the cash outflows. The team is long overdue some new faces. If Bellamy and no other players of his quality arrive before the start of next season then the board might lose even more cash this Summer as the number of season ticket holders shows a marked decline. If that happens then even less money will be available to MON.

It's one thing if Craig Bellamy doesn't sign because he gets a better offer elsewhere, or he prefers to return to the EPL, but it would be a kick in the nuts if he doesn't stay at Celtic because we can't afford him. Perhaps if MON hadn't squandered so much money last Summer on Juninho and Camara, and hadn't encouraged the board to place Lambert on such a lucrative long term contract, then finding the cash to fund the purchase of Craig Bellamy, and other players of a quality necessary to improve the first team, wouldn't be such a problem.

It's not just the board who need to shape up if we want to sign players of the stature of Craig Bellamy. MON will also have to improve his record in the transfer market. MON is a clever man, he must realise that money doesn't grow on trees and as such he must invest his transfer budget better in future than he has over the last couple of years. (That's me banned from getting interviews as well, probably)

GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE