Alex Jones 
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One Celtic fan page has identified Club Brugge and RB Salzburg as club models that Celtic should aim to emulate with a view to becoming more competitive.
The same account also advocated for the Director of Football role to be an integral part of the club moving forward as they discussed the role as forming the backbone of many modern and successful clubs.
Twitter: RB Salzburg have had a Sporting Director in place for some time now with Christoph Freund holding the post from 201… https://t.co/V4GfPTJEn0 (@aboutceltic)
As was discussed by popular Celtic fan account Everything Celtic (@aboutceltic) on Twitter, several threads examined the benefits of adopting a model of intricate scouting, development and the eventual sale of talent onto European heavyweights.
Twitter: The ones that stand out for me are RB Salzburg & Club Brugge.
These are clubs that focus on bringing through young… https://t.co/3V6Ie40WrI (@aboutceltic)
Twitter:
| The Salzburg Model
When I look around at clubs similar to that of Celtic the one that really sticks out to me… https://t.co/ZpistfGuDA (@aboutceltic)
Twitter: In RB Salzburg’s first CL Group Stage match away to Sevilla this season they drew & in their team was
Oumar S… https://t.co/TZDhCei2Wf (@aboutceltic)
The page also discussed the ‘reality’ of Celtic as being a ‘selling’ club, implicitly recognising that the basics of the development and sale of star players is at the core of the club’s practices.
In the summer window, this was apparent – Celtic sold the likes of Kristoffer Ajer to Brentford and Odsonne Edouard to Crystal Palace with both talents joining the Premier League in deals worth an initial £14 million each.
The players had joined from Celtic for smaller sums and had developed at the club for five and four years respectively before being sold in the final years of their contract for a profit.
Twitter: One of the key aspects IMO is that Salzburg is an attractive place for players to want to come & play, there’s a ke… https://t.co/9zXtToJudx (@aboutceltic)
The page noted how Celtic only have a net spend of £22 million compared to the £141 million of Salzburg, describing the gulf as a ‘staggering contrast’ that ‘just shows how well their system works in developing players & selling them on’.
Twitter: Over the last three years here is the net spend at each club
CELTIC – £22M
RB SALZBURG – £141M
That’… https://t.co/mjV68Z6JzW (@aboutceltic)
Twitter: It’s not an overnight fix & it’s certainly not an easy fix but for me this is an avenue Celtic should be looking at… https://t.co/uQshz27kuH (@aboutceltic)
Read Celtic Verdict
Moving to such a larger-scale model of development and sale certainly is sustainable from a financial perspective, so long as Celtic can retain players long enough to maintain sporting integrity.
The two may present a trade-off in the short term, but investing more heavily in recruiting hidden gems and the scouting department could pay dividends in the long run.
