Celtic defeat will hollow out Newco squad

You have only to cast your mind back 8 months, as Celtic tried to convince Ryan Christie to sign a new contract, to know the threats posed by teams in the English Championship to a Scottish club trying to retain their players.

Hard cash is required and not just for the one player you are trying to convince to re-sign, there is an entire wage structure to consider. There are a multitude of reasons Newco needed to beat Celtic on Sunday, but for their players, no issue is more important than who they sign their next contract with.

Three of their starting line-up against Celtic are going into the final year of their contract: Kent, Aribo and Jack, as is substitute Arfield, unused sub Helander and injured Morelos. A further three of the starting line-up are out of contract next month: Goldson, Balogun and McGregor, along with loanee Ramsey and unused sub Davis.

McGregor (40) and Davis (37) will almost certainly retire. Balogun (33) is likely to accept any contract. Goldson has made it clear he will leave next month, while the other six will look for improved contracts or be prepared to run the clock down on their time at Ibrox.

Champions League qualification would resolve all these problems. Instead, they face a rebuild. This is not impossible. Between Edouard, Ajer, Christie and Frimpong, Celtic raised over £40m, money which filled the cashflow gap with enough left over to buy a title winning squad.

Newco are trading at a substantial deficit, money raised from the sale of Patterson and departure of their management team will go some way towards this, but there is unlikely to be anything left over to build a squad with. They either sell at the top of the market and buy incredibly well, or downsize. Or, of course, just keep spending until an ‘event’ happens, like Oldco.