How much money have Celtic wasted on the 9 loan signings we brought in since last January? The number will shock you…

Yesterday, I republished an article I published in November 2023 on the money Celtic had wasted on projects, loans and flops.

I updated it with some figures I thought the club had wasted in the 3 years since then.

In the end, I estimated that since 2016, Celtic has wasted £82 million on projects, loans and flops.

Judging on how this season has been going so far, there’s a good chance the ‘flop’ number could increase significantly.

I already discussed today that’s there’s a distinct chance Haissem Hassan could fall into that category unless we see a huge improvement from him.

But what I did promise was to do on article on how much money has been wasted on the nine loan signings brought in since last January.

The figure is quite staggering.

Especially when you consider what we got in return.

Of the five loan signings Celtic brought in last January, only one could be deemed a success.

That was Julian Araujo.

But can a loan signing ever really be deemed a success?

Not unless you can buy him after he has been successful.

Which Celtic failed to do when it comes to Araujo.

You can rent a lovely house, and you might have some very happy times while you live in it, but it’s never yours to begin with.

Bringing in a player for 6 months, or a year, who makes you really happy while he’s at your club, ultimately ends in disappointment when he goes.

He was never your club’s to begin with.

Similar concept to the rented house…

Reference Patrick Roberts’ time at Celtic if you want to understand fully what I’m talking about.

When you have players at the club who result in high loan costs, but deliver very little?

That’s a whole other level of irritation.

So let’s look at the total cost of last January’s loan signings…

This includes wages and loan fees:

Tomáš Čvančara – £850k

Junior Adamu – £1.13 million

Julian Araujo – £875k

Joel Mvuka – £140k

Benjamin Arthur – £160k

Total cost – £3,155,000

Or £525,833 per month if you want to look at it that way?

That’s a big outlay on a group of players who didn’t contribute very much, isn’t it?

With the exception of Julian Araujo, of course, which I mentioned earlier.

He represented the only value for money in that group.

Of the 6 players we brought in before summer deadline day, 4 were loans.

Jordan Lotomba was brought in on a year long deal, that certainly doesn’t represent money well spent thus far at a cost of £720k, does it?

Then, of course, we have Joel van den Berg, £3.5 million for a B game so far.

That’s a story for another day, though, because I’m sure we’re going to see how that one pans out sooner, rather than later.

So let’s take a look at the loan costs of the most recent acquisitions:

Sam Johnstone – £2.3 million

Oliver Sørensen – £760k

Shim Mheuka – £450k

Landon Emenalo – £150k

Jordan Lotomba – £720k (I’m going to go out on limb here and include him because I don’t see him at Celtic next season)

Total cost – £4,380,000

Sam Johnstone, thus far, gets pass marks.

But is he worth the loan fee we’ve paid for him?

Martin O’Neill certainly seems to think so because he’s got ‘EPL gravitas’…

Wow!

As for the rest?

Landon Emenalo wasn’t unveiled until late last month, so he’s not had much time to contribute anything.

It’s looking more and more likely that he and Shim Mheuka will return their parent club, along with Oliver Sørensen in January.

All three will have contributed little to nothing during their time at the club.

The total paid out for the all of the loan signings over the last ten months or so?

£7,535,000

Value for money?

I’ll let you be the judge of that.

As for me, I’ll just add that to the £82 million bill for projects, loans, and flops.

Which now brings it to just over £89.5 million and counting.

And it will increase.

You can bet your bottom dollar on that.

Yet nobody will be held accountable.

Nobody will lose their job.

Because if nobody has since 2016, they’re certainly not going to now.

Only the fans can change that.

Surely wanton waste like that would motivate you to want to change that?

Surely??

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