'That was the plan' - Anthony Joseph explains Celtic's baffling summer transfer decision

Sky Sports reporter Anthony Joseph has provided some interesting insight on what went wrong during Celtic's forgettable summer transfer window.

It wasn't all bad from the Hoops, who did manage a couple of excellent signings in Mika Baur and Camilo Durán, while the jury very much remains out with Kasper Hogh and Haissem Hassan.

But it was an inefficient window to say the least Celtic knew they needed mass recruitment after last season, and indeed knowing they would lose Arne Engels, Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate. They also knew for the duration of the summer that they needed to replace Kasper Schmeichel, who retired.

But they never signed a replacement for Engels and their best answer for a Schmeichel replacement was signing veteran keeper Sam Johnstone in the final days of the window.

A number of young and filler signings were brought in at the end of the window, and it was remarkable to think the club couldn't fill such key gaps when they knew all summer that they needed to find such players.

We always knew Celtic hit pause on new recruits after missing out on Champions League qualification, and now Joseph has provided some of the context to the extremity of that decision.

He told Celtic Fans TV: "The aim, as we were widely reporting, was that they were in talks to sign [Ermin] Mahmić, they were in talks to sign [Gvidas] Gineitis, they were in talks to sign Adrian Blake and they wanted a goalkeeper of international calibre and the likes of Balázs Tóth at Blackburn.

“Could you imagine if they’d spent another 25 million pounds on those players, and that was the plan if they got into the Champions League. When it looked like they were going to be going through in the Champions League, there were some big players being offered to them.”

He added: “So they basically stopped spending, they ceased all spending after they went out of the Champions League. They brought in four loans and one free transfer to patch up the squad.”

The strange thing about Celtic's investment pause is that they seem to want to compete in the Champions League despite having absolutely no chance of winning the competition.

If they were to invest in their squad properly, it is not out of the question that they could win the Europa League, or at least have a good run in the competition. But there seems to be no interest, likely because the financial rewards are not immediate.

It's true, just reaching the Europa League league phase is nowhere near as financially rewarding as the Champions League. But going deep into the competition results in prize money really stacking up.

Instead, it's Champions League or nothing, and realistically speaking, Celtic, more often than not, won't get past the league phase in the Champions League, so it just doesn't add up.