When Rangers follow Celtic’s lead in terms of transfers, Kris Boyd claims they run the danger of losing millions of pounds.

In Friday’s [23 February] interim PLC report for the six months to December 2023, Celtic announced a profit before tax of £32 million.

While Rangers added a few players to their roster during the January transfer window, Celtic fans were dissatisfied with the club’s lack of movement.

“Let me clarify, I am not against Celtic’s ‘buy low, sell high’ strategy,” Boyd wrote in his column for The Scottish Sun on February 23.

The Parkhead board has taken a beating recently, but it has served as a successful model in the past. The biggest issue with such approach is that it can be quite harmful with just one or two poor windows.

A few years back, after winning the league, the Rangers learned that the hard way. Their home success may have been further accelerated if they had included a few additional quality components.

“But a few bad transfer windows allowed Celtic to overtake them again domestically. Performance levels decreased at Ibrox because some new acquisitions didn’t improve the squad.

“Celtic’s model is one Rangers will also use – but if your scouting and judgement isn’t spot on, millions can be wasted.”

Rangers transfer strategy made apparent in January window

Celtic can plan the open top bus procession around Glasgow for the conclusion of the season because they have won the battle of the spreadsheets.

As Boyd says, it is all well and good bringing in money, but it is what you then do with it that really counts.

Rangers had a dismal summer of transfer activity, however many of the underperforming players have already begun firing under Philippe Clement.

The Gers’ transfer stratagem for the next two years is already now easy to see — bring in some hidden talents who have potential for improvement – Mohamed Diomande being a major example.

That is the type of deal Boyd says may backfire, given he arrived with a £4.5m price tag, but the club’s scouting network evidently liked what they saw.

Unlike previous regimes, there is now a definite policy in place when it comes to transfers under Nils Koppen. Some transfers will unavoidably be duds, but you can be sure there will be more hits than misses in the future windows.