On the face of it, there seems to be some joined-up thinking when it comes to Celtic's £5 million bid for Sheffield United's Auston Trusty.

The Scottish Premiership champions lodged their initial bid for the former Arsenal central defender early on Tuesday morning. Brendan Rodgers desperately needs a left-sided centre-back and Trusty appears to fit the bill for what the Irishman is looking for.

The 26-year-old - who can play at centre-back and left-back - made the switch to the Blades from Arsenal last summer in a £5million deal. He appeared 32 times in the English Premier League last season but Sheffield United endured a nightmare campaign and were relegated straight back to the Championship.

The stopper has been capped twice by the USA national team and Rodgers clearly believes that the club will be able to team Trusty up with compatriot Cameron Carter-Vickers in a new-look Celtic backline. Celtic are also hopeful that the lure of Champions League league phase football will be enough to entice Trusty away from Bramall Lane and convince him that his future lies in Glasgow.

Throw in the fact that Sheffield United wanted to take Mikey Johnston off Celtic's hands permanently then all the conditions seemed ripe for both clubs to engage in a decent piece of business.

So far, so good... or is it?

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Johnston may have clinched a £2.5 million deal with Sheffield United but this will have been struck independently of any Trusty movement to Glasgow's east end. Did Celtic miss another transfer window trick here? Why were deals for Johnston and Trusty not thrashed out as part of the same package? Trusty is a USA internationalist. He has English Premier League experience but he now finds himself back in the Championship.

Nobody knows the English market better than Rodgers. He is well aware of what players are bought, sold and traded for, especially in the top two tiers in England. The 51-year-old will know then that a £5 million bid for a player like Trusty - whom Celtic covet - can be seen as a lowball offer. Let's not forget most Championship clubs are awash with cash themselves. A bit like Celtic at the minute.

The end-of-season Championship play-off final at Wembley is traditionally billed as the richest game in world football. The match has earned that tag because it is estimated to be worth £170m to £305m in additional revenue over three seasons to the winners, who gain promotion to the Premier League. If like Sheffield United, clubs are relegated back to the Championship then they can expect to receive between £90 and £100 million in parachute payments in the three years following their demotion.

Do you see where I am going here?

All of a sudden an opening bid of £5 million for a club's asset which is the same outlay Sheffield paid Arsenal for Trusty, on the face of it appears to be small beer. Sheffield United don't exactly need the money. However, Blades boss Chris Wilder did give Celtic some hope when he stated that Sheffield United would listen to 'genuine' offers for their players.

Wilder said: "It's not my favourite part of the year from a speculation point of view. There are genuine offers, but there are offers from clubs just to cause unrest. There have been some genuine offers as well that we have to discuss and make decisions on."

(Image: Craig Williamson - SNS Group)

Read into that what you will. Does Sheffield United regard Celtic's bid as a 'genuine or serious' offer? Celtic had to dig deep and stump up £8.5 million to sign Norwich City and Republic of Ireland striker Adam Idah in the summer after an initial lowball offer of £4.5 million was rejected.

Are Sheffield United going to lead Celtic on a similar merry transfer window dance? You wouldn't blame them the Blades for that though, would you? It's exactly the kind of problems concerning the recruitment drive that Rodgers alluded to in the aftermath of Celtic's 3-0 win against St Mirren in Paisley.

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Rodgers said: "As a football club, we want to develop, we want to improve. We can't be happy just to make our money and build our pot because the bottom line is on the pitch. That's the bottom line. So we have a duty to put the best team on the pitch. That's what we'll do and look to do.

"If we can do it by Friday, and strengthen the squad, we'll be in a really, really good place. It's taken a lot longer than I would have liked as the football manager. That's my brutally honest answer to it. So it's important that we do get that. I have a belief that we will do.

"There are a number of things I won't go into here but it's something - having come back in and gone through three windows now - we have to put right as a football club.

"We shouldn't have been getting into this last week in the position we're in. That's the reality. However, that's something for us after this window.

"As I said, we'll get the players in that we want. We don't need to manufacture our own stress when there's no need. We don't need to do that. So we'll be calm this week. We'll look to get the players in that can strengthen us."

Celtic are Olympic gold medallists at manufacturing their own stress during every transfer window. Once again the club have left it until the last week of the window to scramble around as they try and conclude vital pieces of business. They are racing against the clock... again to get deals over the line. That is entirely on the club board and not the manager. Celtic may well have to pay a premium price for some of their intended targets especially when other clubs are aware of just how desperate the men in green and white are to get business concluded.

There is also the not-so-small matter of fact that Celtic's coffers were recently swelled to the tune of £25 million plus following the sale of Matt O'Riley to Brighton & Hove Albion and that outsiders see a club dripping in cash. Rodgers has less than three days to get the players that he craves into the building. It's largely why Rodgers is determined to change the stressful transfer window culture at Celtic. When this transfer window is finished the Celtic manager will ensure moving forward that it will be 'Terminado' to the previous recruitment policies and practices. On his lookout.

Rodgers remains determined to satisfy the club's ambitions both at home and abroad. He remains committed to representing the Celtic supporters by giving them the best possible team in the park by spending money on quality players.

Rodgers has proved by his words and deeds throughout this summer's transfer window that when it comes to the entire football operations at Celtic then it is he and he alone who can be 'Trustyd'.