BRENDAN RODGERS reckons the gap in financial resources between Celtic and English top-flight clubs is STRATOSPHERIC.
The Hoops boss splashed a club record £9million on making Odsonne Edouard’s loan deal from Paris Saint-Germain permanent and his only other summer signing has been goalkeeper Scott Bain, a free agent after his Dundee contract expired.
Rodgers has helped the Parkhead club bank around £60million in two back-to-back successful Champions League qualifying campaigns since he arrived in May 2016.
The seven-in-a-row title-winners are now six encounters – starting tomorrow night against Rosenborg – away from a potential £40million windfall if they gatecrash the group stages for a third consecutive year.
However, the proposed move for Scotland international midfielder John McGinn has stalled because Celtic will not meet Hibs’ asking price of around the £4million mark. The Edinburgh outfit have already rejected three bids for the player who is out of contract next summer.
Rodgers rates his boyhood heroes bigger than most clubs in the English Premier League, but is faced with the impossible task of attempting to match their spending power during the transfer windows.
He admitted: “If a player’s on X amount of pounds and he can go to the Premier League on five, six times that, it’s very difficult to stop that.
“Celtic is a huge club in every way – historically, trophies, fans, stadium.
“But what isn’t relative is money.
“It’s financially, not in the same stratosphere as ALL the Premier League clubs.
“So, you have to accept that. It doesn’t stop you fighting any harder or wanting to do any better.
“But you probably know the turnaround in players might be a little bit greater.
“There’s an acceptance of that because it’s difficult to keep a player who can earn much more.”
Celtic have already sold international midfielder Stuart Armstrong to Southampton in a £7million deal this summer while Fulham have been linked with Belgian international central defender Dedryck Boyata, who has one year left on his contract.
