BOARD MUST GIVE BREN MOUSSA CASH

Parkhead boss made them the money, now let him spend it on the squad

HAVING banked the guts of £20million for Moussa Dembele this week, I fancy that Brendan Rodgers will be telling the board that come January he wants to re-invest that money back into the team.

And I think he would be absolutely right to go and say that he earned the chance to get some real quality additions in now.

This window has gone. It was a bang average one for Celtic. They missed out on targets, they went out of the Champions League and they lost an early league game to Hearts.

We had the Dedryck Boyata situation and then we had Moussa letting rip at the manager publicly to get his move. So it is what it is now. But I have to say, Brendan basically made the £20m for the club from Dembele. He took the boy from Fulham for pennies and then banked the profit two years later. The lad only came to Celtic because he knew that he would get better working under Brendan, he would get game time and the chance to develop. It is an unbelievable bit of business.

I am not saying that the way it happened was good. It was a sour end for the boy but ultimately we all knew from the minute that he arrived at the club that he would do his two years and then head somewhere else.

Had Celtic been able to get someone else in I don’t think it would have ended the way that it did but you have to say that in terms of the finances that it brings in now, you can more than understand why Brendan will be saying to the board, ‘right, let’s put this into the team now.’

I also don’t think that there was any way back for Moussa once he had crossed the line with Brendan. You just can’t go out publicly like that. We all know it was a tactic to get him his move so the best of luck to him.

He did tremendously well at Celtic and he will always be remembered as part of a double Treble winning team which is something that might never happen again. Celtic is bigger than any one player and always has been. Players will come and go, that’s just a fact of life.

But I was interested to hear Brendan say that he will sit with the board and discuss how the window went and what can be done differently.

We all can appreciate what was going on over the summer with the manager frustrated at not getting the players in that he wanted.

Now it is back to football for the next couple of months but it gives the recruitment guys four months to get looking at what Celtic need and, crucially, where to get it.

A strong centre-half, another striker and players with a little bit of pace and creativity are what Celtic need. They showed on Sunday that they have enough to get through domestically and the Europa League draw was doable for them too.

If they can get players in for the second half of the season then that just kicks them on a bit in terms of looking ahead and building for next summer.

If the board and the manager can together now and communicate what has to happen between now and January then there is every chance that you learn from it and you know what has to be done when it opens again.

But the next couple of months are about what happens on the pitch again.

For the first time since Rodgers arrived he has come out of a little bit of a storm. It was never a crisis – give me a break with that – but having won the last three games without conceding, Celtic are back with a little bit of momentum now.

I am interested to see just what Filip Benkovic brings to the table now too. Leicester were prepared to pay £13m for him and I think you would expect a little bit of quality for that.

After the international break we should get to see what he can offer as Celtic look to solidify that backline.