With Celtic leading the way in the Scottish Premiership, if Brendan Rodgers can see this out and win he title, automatic qualification for the Champions League will be the reward.
And with that, the riches that come with that will be needed because if Jim Duffy‘s prediction on how many players Celtic will need to compete is anything to go by, the £40m that will find it’s way into the Parkhead coffers won’t last long.
The summer recruitment by Celtic this season was roundly criticised as many of the new recruits struggled to get into Brendan Rodgers‘ team, never mind make an impact in the Champions League.
Duffy – Celtic need to let 10 players leave
But not only does Celtic need to recruit properly, Duffy claims that a minimum of eight to ten players need to leave the club this summer as they are simply not good enough.
Duffy said [Superscoreboard], “Playing in the Champions League can be an attraction to come to Celtic.
“But Celtic have to be doing their business now. They have to be preparing, they have to be doing their homework and get players targeted and ready to sign as soon as they possibly can.
“They have to do an awful lot better than their recent record has been. I don’t think there’s any getting away from that.
“I think they need to have a good eight to 10 cleared out and a good number brought in of a higher quality that can totally compete for first-team places rather than just being squad players.”
It seems then that Duffy believes a complete overhaul of the current squad is required and on the evidence of how the previous summer signings have fared, barring Luis Palma, the overwhelming verdict is that the players are not good enough.
And that has been proven with a stuttering league campaign where even in the midst of an injury crisis Gustaf Lagerbielke and Maik Nawrocki have struggled to make an impact.
It will be interesting to see how the summer goes because it seems that Rodgers will have more control over things at the club.
Fingers crossed the title gets over the line and the Celtic manager can put that Champions League cash to good use.