Celtic needs players who are supported by the management. After that, it makes no difference how much they cost

So, earlier today, I mentioned Jackson—his stupid post about Rodgers yesterday, and his jaw-dropping claim that the manager would protest if he was given £30 million and told he had to spend it on five players rather than three.

It’s one of the most ridiculous claims I’ve seen in recent Scottish sports media history—but it wasn’t the only one.

Now, typically I’d leave it at that and move on, but I bring it up again because Jackson’s second crazy argument has been mirrored elsewhere—on a handful of Celtic blogs and forums—and I want to address it head on.

We believe that signing big-money players is necessary to demonstrate ambition. It’s so far from the truth that my head hurts.

Yes, questions will be raised if we sign a large number of low-value players.

That is natural. People will look at the manager and the board and wonder what the heck is going on. That is the result of our current situation, which stems from a very serious perception problem.

The low-key start of this window did not improve matters. It didn’t help that we sold our star striker in January without replacing him.

A perception problem exists. It is real. We’ve talked about it several times on this blog. And no matter what the club does at this point, it will not evaporate. It is not a ghost. If we are thought to be more interested in profit than in strengthening the first team, it is because the profit is evident, as are the first team’s gaps. You cannot glance at one while ignoring the other.

That perception did not emerge from nowhere. It is the product of years of foot-dragging, lowballing, and small-time thinking on the part of our club’s leadership. They enabled it to exist. It’s simply that simple.

A board that does not provide the manager with the necessary support or demonstrate the ambition he is entitled to expect is a board that is not on the job—or not up to the task. I’m not sure which of these is worst.

But Jackson’s suggestion that our acquisitions need to be expensive, that they need to be ‘blue chip’ as defined by their fee, is complete garbage. And that is why I am not paying attention to people who are already moaning about Yamada’s impending arrival, simply because he appears to be a cheap signing.

It’s the same amount we paid for Maeda. The same as we paid for O’Riley. Yes, on the surface, it appears bad—we sold Kyogo and may be replacing him with a £1.5 million player. But this isn’t the player’s fault.

That is the fault of the board, who created an environment in which such a deal appears to be a downgrade. If there are any reservations, they are not about the player, but about the ambitions of those who control our club.

To be honest, judging a player based on his valuation makes no sense.

We’ll be in good shape for the upcoming season if they’re reasonably priced and fit the blueprint laid forth by the manager.

And, while it’s wonderful to swoon over huge, costly, headline-grabbing signings, some of Celtic’s best players in the last decade came at a low cost.

I am willing to wait and see. I’m ready to give the club the benefit of the doubt—as long as the players we bring in are the ones the manager wants and fit the system he’s developing. That is what matters. Not the price tag.