Few clubs in the country are better at turning bargain buys into multi-million sales than Scottish Premiership champions Celtic.
Matt O’Riley joined in a £1.5 million deal from MK Dons and left for Brighton and Hove Albion to the tune of £25 million.
Celtic also brought in over £20 million via the sale of Jota to Saudi Arabia, while Liel Abada, Josip Juranovic, Odsonne Edouard, Moussa Dembele, Virgil van Dijk, Victor Wanyama, Kristoffer Ajer and Jeremie Frimpong also departed for considerable fees.
But who will be the next player to earn The Hoops a windfall of substantial proportions?
Kyogo Furuhashi maybe would have been, had Manchester City stepped up their interest in a forward they had identified as a potential replacement for Julian Alvarez, HITC understands.
Cameron Carter-Vickers and the increasingly-effective Nicolas Kuhn would command eye-watering fees these days too.
But John Hartson, emboldened by a stirring performance in the 3-0 Old Firm derby victory over Rangers before the September international break, throws another name into the mix.
That of Paulo Bernardo.
Celtic landed a £3.5 million bargain Paulo Bernardo
“Brendan likes signing players that he feels he can improve. Brendan’s brilliant on the training ground and he likes to work with them,” legendary centre-forward Harton tells Go Radio.
“You look at Bernardo now, who was absolutely terrific (against Rangers). He will probably be the next £15m or £20m player to go from Celtic. He’s that good.
Matt O’Riley was £1.5m from MK Dons a couple of years ago, you’ve got Kieran Tierney coming through from the youth team, Moussa Dembele who cost £500,000 and they sold him for £20m.
“It’s remarkable (how Celtic keep turning a profit). But it’s down to hard work from Brendan, his style and putting them in when they’re ready.”
Bernardo spent the 2023/24 season on loan from Benfica before joining in a cut-price £3.5 million permanent deal.
The Glasgow giants were initially supposed to pay around double that with Hartson’s former strike partner Chris Sutton praising the Celtic board for the way they handled the negotiations.
Bernardo, a former Portugal Under 21 international, might lack the natural, god-given talent of O’Riley. But he makes up for that with boundless energy reserves, a powerful shot from distance, and an impressively well-rounded skill-set.
John Hartson hails Luke McCowan ambition
“Paulo is a very intelligent football player. He’s young, can develop, got loads to his game, can tackle, can defend and run, can pass the ball,” captain Callum McGregor told the Daily Record. “He can do everything!
“I really enjoyed playing alongside him last year. Yeah, we’re still good in that (midfield) area.”
Celtic have retained the services of the masterful Reo Hatate, too, while deadline day arrival Luke McCowan could also prove to be an intelligent bit of business after shining elsewhere in the Premiership at Dundee.
“Listening to that attitude there, I think it’s very bullish,” Hartson adds of McCowan, impressed with the 26-year-old’s desire to nail down a starting role under Rodgers. “He’s sending out a message that I haven’t come here to play second fiddle.
“He backs himself, which I think every player has to. That’s great. That’s the type of thing a manager actually wants to listen to. He’s got real character.
“I don’t think he’ll play every game. I think he will have to bide his time because we saw how good Bernardo was against Rangers and then obviously Hatate and McGregor in there as well. But there’ll be injuries, there’ll be opportunities for him. There’s no doubt about that.
“I just like the fact that he’s backing himself really, really early.”
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