CELTIC CONFIDENTIAL: Why Trent Alexander-Arnold leaving Liverpool might convey a monetary windfall for Celtic, bogey away package lined up for subsequent season and the selfmade resolution to left-back disaster

It seems that everything Celtic touch right now turns to gold. The club’s last annual report revealed that there was a record £77million sitting in the bank. And that was before the cash from this year’s Champions League campaign – anything north of £40m – begins cascading in.

The word on the streets of Merseyside will also put a smile on the face of the club’s finance chief Chris McKay.

With Trent Alexander-Arnold showing no signs of extending his contract at Liverpool, the Reds have put Jeremie Frimpong at the top of their list of potential replacements.

Frimpong left Celtic for Bayer Leverkusen in January 2021 for £11m and hasn’t looked back since. He was part of the squad which won the Bundesliga without a single defeat last season.

Liverpool are willing to pay the £34.7m which would release him from a contract that runs until 2028.

Celtic shrewdly inserted a clause which ensures that they stand to receive 30 per cent of any profit the German club makes. That would see another £7.1m winging its way to Parkhead.

Celtic dig into the archives 

There wasn’t a great deal to cheer Celtic supporters in season 1996-97. Despite the best efforts of the late Tommy Burns and the madcap Paolo Di Canio, the club were unable to prevent Rangers from equalling their record of nine straight titles.

One thing that did make a favourable impression with the fanbase that year, though, was the team’s eye-catching away kit – green and black horizontal stripes – known colloquially as the bumblebee.

It was such a hit, in fact, that the club brought back the look for the 2009-10 campaign.

Despite that year under Tony Mowbray being another huge letdown, it seems the club are now hoping it will be a case of third time lucky for the bumblebee.

It’s understood that Brendan Rodgers’ side will pull on a kit with a similar design when they hit the road in season 2025-26. 

A looming solution at left back?  

The identity of Celtic’s left back next season is already consuming supporters.

Greg Taylor is out of contract. Brendan Rodgers wants to keep him but there is no sign of a breakthrough.

Alex Valle has impressed. Celtic will have a conversation with his parent club Barcelona about making the arrangement permanent, although the lack of an agreed fee means that a deal is difficult.

Rumours that Kieran Tierney will return to his spiritual home have increased since the Arsenal man attended a recent Celtic charity function in London.

While those options are the most obvious, there might well be another solution in the shape of Alexandro Bernabei.

The Argentinian joined from Lanus for £3.75m when Ange Postecoglou was the manager two years ago. He made 28 appearances then disappeared when Rodgers was in charge last season.

When the defender headed out on loan to Brazilian club Internacional at the start of this year, the assumption was that he would never set foot in Glasgow again.

But the 24-year-old has been a revelation in Porto Alegre, delivering a man-of-the-match display in the weekend win over Fluminense.

There are now even calls for Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni to call him up to the senior squad for the first time.

With his loan deal expiring in January, Rodgers will surely give Bernabei a second chance to impress before he makes a decision on his future.

South Stand costs are still too steep 

Celtic have yet to decide what to do about the growing need to deal with their South Stand issue.

The main stand is now the oldest part of the stadium, built in its original form in 1929. The club used the money banked by the Lisbon Lions to overhaul the structure in 1971. They also constructed a new facade in 1988.

With restricted and outdated corporate, female toilet, reception and press facilities, however, the stand is the first thing opponents see when they pitch up on European nights. And the board are aware of the need to deal with the issue at some point.

Despite all that cash in the bank, the main issue never changes. Cost.

Estimates for a new stand are in the region of £80m. Where to seat just under 8,000 season ticket holders while the work is carried out is another significant consideration.

If or when the work ever goes ahead, the steel seems unlikely to come from China.

Parkhead outfit dreaming big in Europe 

Callum McGregor has outlined the scale of Celtic’s ambition in the Champions League by insisting there is no reason why they shouldn’t aim for the top eight in the new-look table.

As far as his team-mate Auston Trusty is concerned, the Parkhead outfit are already Kings of Europe in one key department – the sheer volume of noise their supporters make on the big-match nights.

The American defender was asked in a special feature on the club’s in-house TV channel if he agreed with the assertion that Celtic supporters make more of a racket than anyone else in football.

‘I agree,’ he replied. ‘I think Dortmund versus Celtic was crazy. Those are the two biggest fan bases. Playing Celtic at Celtic Park is insane. It is actually insane.’

Team-mate Liam Scales is another who has been impressed by the atmosphere created by Celtic fans in this Champions League campaign.

‘Even in the away game against Atalanta, the noise the Celtic fans make when the music starts… you could hear that in the small section more than the Atalanta fans and I think that sort of shows it,’ said the Irishman.