Exclusive: Kieran Maguire hails Celtic for transfer masterstroke | OneFootball

The player trading model employed by Celtic has been a masterstroke and has aided their near-decade-long “domination” of Scottish football, says Kieran Maguire.

The finance expert and new Football Insider columnist spoke exclusively after this site revealed that the Hoops have slashed their asking price for Odsonne Edouard.

The Parkhead hierarchy had originally wanted £40million for the 23-year-old but will now settle for £25m amid interest from reported interest from Arsenal and AC Milan.

Maguire believes that Celtic’s strategy of selling high-value players is what has kept them at the top of the tree in Scottish football for so long.

“Celtic have been successful financially away from the pitch in recent years, especially when they’ve qualified for the champions league,” he told Football Insider.

“Also because they’ve had a player trading model where they’ve sold around one player a year at a fairly high price.

“That’s allowed them to covert their day-to-day losses and convert that into a profit.

“From a strategic point of view, they’ve actually done pretty well. That’s partly why they’ve enjoyed such domination for so long.”

Kieran Tierney (Arsenal) and Moussa Dembele (Lyon) have been the big-money departures in recent years, leaving for £25m and £20m respectively.

Previous to that, Victor Wanyama, Virgil van Dijk and Fraser Forster secured £10m+ fees for the Hoops.

In other news, a former Rangers and Scotland manager says Celtic need a new recruitment wizard if they are to source the next generation of footballing talent.