Celtic and the £33m transfer profit that puts Man United, Chelsea and Premier League giants to financial shame

Celtic are one of only three British teams to have made a net profit on transfers since 2014. And £15m of their £33m total over the last ten seasons has come in a cash-laden 2023 for the Scottish Premiership champions.

It's all according to a new study which ranks Brendan Rodgers' team among the 50 most profitable clubs on the transfer front for this calendar year. The Parkhead side have enjoyed a profitable few months with the surprise windfall from Jota's sale to Al-Ittihad putting the Hoops firmly in the green, despite splashing out on Maik Nawrocki, Luis Palma and Gustaf Lagerbielke among others.

They also sold Josip Juranovic and Giorgios Giakoumakis for a tidy profit in January and according to the CIES Football Observatory, they have made a net profit of £15m for this calendar year. That's a sharp uptick on their post-covid total (+£5m) and their entire total from 2019-2023 (also +£5m). CIES' most recent weekly report looks at the 100 most active clubs 'in terms of the financial volume of transactions concluded since 2014'. In other words, the clubs who have spent and received the most on transfers over the last ten seasons.

Celtic are the only Scottish club on the list and they fall in the profitable half of the overall table having made £33m in net profit (£33m more received than spent) over that period. That's small fry compared to what Benfica (£764m) and Ajax (£434m) have made in the same period.

The Hoops, Norwich and Swansea City are the only British teams to have recorded a net profit in that period - and Celtic stand alone as the only top flight UK side to have done so.

Brighton and Hove Albion have made £97m since 2019 due to a number of recent sales but their net spend prior to that still leaves them