Can Celtic improve their transfer policy under a new boss?

There is no denying the Aussie made great use of his vastly superior spending power over his rivals to lead Celtic to a Scottish Premiership and League Cup double during his first year and a world record eighth domestic treble in his second season in the hotseat.

Postecoglou oversaw Celtic's business over four transfer windows in his two years at the Parkhead helm where the 57-year-old splashed out a whopping £47,895,000 on players coming into the club.

However Postecoglou's net spend was actually just a paltry £2,095,000 to be precise which is an incredible feat really.

It's small wonder that he laughed off jibes from Rangers boss Michael Beale last season that he was a 'lucky man'.

What is apparent though is that certainly during his first year of recruitment Postecoglou got his recruitment and business spot on.

To the untrained eye it would appear that Postecoglou went on some kind of spending spree in Glasgow but the evidence presented shows that narrative is far from the case.

The good ship Celtic was navigated by a shrewd Postecoglou who steered the club to domestic success whilst being bankrolled by a regular diet of European football and player sales...big players sales!

As well as the Greek-born Aussie's keen eye for a player particularly in the Asian market.

READ MORE: Postecoglou 'to trigger' £20million transfer race for Celtic's Kyogo

Postecoglou's first season saw Celtic unearth hidden gems such as Kyogo Furuhashi (£4.6 mllion), Reo Hatate (£1.5m), Liel Abada (£3.5m), Joe Hart (£1m), Giorgos Giakoumakis (£2.5m) Josip Juranovic (£2.5m), Matt O'Riley (£1.5m) and Carl Starfelt (£4m) whilst the highly talented Jota and Cameron Carter-Vickers were secured on one year loan deals with options to buy.

The former Yokohama F. Marinos boss oversaw a drastic squad overhaul after Celtic's lame attempt at securing 10-in-a-row which saw them finish a lamentable 25 points behind champions Rangers.

The players purchased were out of necessity for Postecoglou and was helped largely by three main sales; Kristoffer Ajer to Brentford for £13.5m; Ryan Christie to Bournemouth for £2.5m and Odsonne Edouard to Crystal Palace for £14m.

The crux of the matter is that Postecoglou led Celtic to a League and Cup double in his first season on an estimated net spend of -£10,205,000.

That's an incredible total when you think about it.

The securing of automatic Champions League group stage football then set the tone for Postecoglou and Celtic to ramp up their second season spending as Carter-Vickers and Jota's loan deals were made permanent which saw the men in green and white lashing out a total of £12.4m during the summer of 2022.

Further spending on Alexandro Bernabei (£3.75m) Sead Haksabanovic (£1.7m) Alistair Johnston (£3m) Oh Hyeon-gyu (£2.5m) took the splurge to in the regionof over £25 million.

On the departure front Christoper Jullien Josip Juranovic and Giorgos Giakoumakis were among the notable departures, which generated the club some £12,650,000 worth of funds.

The spending figures have been skewed here because on the surface it certainly looks like Postecoglou was the highest-spending manager in the club's history, even eclipsing legendary figures like Martin O'Neill, Neil Lennon and Brendan Rodgers.

READ MORE: Martin O'Neill's Celtic success... in his own words

However it has to be caveated by the fact that remarkably his overall net spend at the club comes in at just over the £2 million mark.

Therfore can Celtic's transfer policy improve even further under the new manager whoever that may be?

All things considered did Postecoglou get it completely right in both seasons with Celtic in all of his recruitment drive?

The answer is actually, no.

Not every player who came into the club or those who were purchased have been a resounding success.

It's clear that Celtic's recruitment under Postecoglou in the first year was far better than the transfer policy in season two.

Think Oliver Abildgaard, James McCarthy, Johnny Kenny, Liam Scales and Yosuke Ideguchi who have all seen next to no game time whatsoever with Celtic.

The jury is also still largely out on the £3.75 million Argentine full back Alexandro Bernabei and you can throw in centre-back Yuki Kobayashi to the mix as well J1-League MVP Tomoki Iwata.

It remains to be seen if Postecoglou's replacement will fancy all three and take up the option to buy clause on defensive midfielder Iwata. Whilst all three have undoubted ability there are lingering doubts that they will be at Celtic for the long haul now that the Aussie has departed for pastures new.

Montenegrin attacker Sead Haksbanovic ia another who has briefly set the heather alight in some of his cameo appearances and although he possesses bags of tremendous skill and ability he has been proven to be a tad injury-prone thus far.

This is where the new Celtic manager comes in and where an improved transfer policy could actually benefit the treble winners in the long run and make them an even better team. Certainly in the European arena.

There is no doubting that there were more hits than misses for Celtic during Postecoglou's recruitment drive in two seasons.

However a major bonus for any the new manager coming into Celtic is not only does he waltz straight into the Champions League group stages he has also inherited a squad who are all on long-term deals and if somebody wants Celtic's prized assets they are going to have to pay through the nose for them.

Celtic are in a strong bargaining position when it comes to their key players. Both Kyogo and Starfelt have two years of their current deals still to run with Carter-Vickers, O'Riley, Abada, Hatate and Maede all signed up for the next three seasons with Jota and Haksabanovic on board for four more years.

It's an exciting time for any new manager coming into Celtic and even if the men in green and white were to see a mass exodus of players in the summer they would move on for significant sums.

That would give the Aussie's replacement sufficient financial ammunition to utilise his own knowledge of various transfer markets just as Postecoglou did in Asia as well as show that his own transfer policy could be even better than his predecessor.

Perception is key here.

Postecoglou supposedly had the midas touch when it came to Celtic's transfer policy but a deeper dive and delve into his dealings shows that he also had his share of failings. The Aussie's Celtic were far from the finished article.

Now of the high-calibre candidates that have been linked to the job the fans favourite appears to be Bodo/Glimt boss Kjetil Knutsen.

Knutsen is no stranger to the Celtic supporters having dismantled the Glasgow outfit 5-1 on aggregate in a Europa Conference League play-off tie in 2022.

Bodo/Glimt played a brand of superior attacking football to Celtic's that night and back then it felt like we were watching Postecoglou's side through the looking glass.

If Celtic could entice the Norwegian to take over the managerial then it would stand to reason that Knutsen could possibly persuade the likes of Roma's outcast Ola Solbakken and Brice Wembangomoto to join him at Parkhead.

Those are the kind of transfers that would excite the Celtic faithful.

READ MORE: Celtic favourite Kjetil Knutsen responds to managerial links

Likewise if Pep Guardiola's number two at Manchester City Enzo Maresca were declared the man to take Celtic forward then the possibilities for signing targets could be endless given the amount of contacts and players that Maresca within the City group database for a start.

The point being that Celtic's transfer policy in the past two years under Postecoglou has been held up as some of the best recruitment in the clubs 135-year history to date.

It wasn't flawless but Celtic's new boss has to look on and believe that he can drastically improve the club's transfer policy and who knows when he takes up the baton his recruitment drive might take the club to the places where it wants to be.

Winning a world record eight trebles is all well and good. Dominating domestically is all well and good.

Any new Celtic boss will have looked on at Postecoglou's achievements and realise that they have an unbelievable opportunity to take the club back to the place where the faithful crave success most - in Europe.

There is a nucleus of a wonderful squad at Celtic and with one or two more quality additions they can amount to more than a hill of beans on the continent. There is also a feeling of some unfinished business for Celtic in the Champions League.

So rather than being all doom and gloom at the departure of Postecoglou there is plenty of scope for Celtic to improve everything about their operation including their transfer policy.

All it would take is some spit and polish as well as refinements in the personnel department which could well see Celtic become what the Aussie deemed a 'Champions League competitive' team.

Very few teams ever become the finished article.

Postecoglou may have walked out on his beautiful house midway through the project.

Celtic's new manager is inheriting many weapons of mass construction.