Reports from Portugal seem to indicate that Celtic and Benfica have reached agreement on a price for the purchase of Paolo Bernardo, the young midfielder who was on loan at Celtic Park last season

According to other reports, negotiations have moved on to add ons, resale clauses and other details.

So the spending appears to have begun, and although it’s not a new face, it is a new outlay, something we’d do well to remember as the spending spree continues.

There’s talk in the Daily Record that Celtic are interested in a Sparta Prague keeper ….

The goalkeeper is high on the Hoops’ transfer list this summer 

That’s from Football Scotland, and since their go to Celtic expert is Frank MacAvennie, I’d suggest that we take this with a pinch of salt. About a truckful of salt, in fact.

Given that Brendan Rodgers prefers the sound of Irish accents around the place, I wouldn’t completely discount the Liverpool reserve Kelleher just yet….. or, indeed, Dara O’Shea, of Burnley, who has been mentioned as a possible target by the Daily Record.

Adam Idah has been told he has a place at Norwich and he’s responded by saying he wants to go to Celtic.

I think we’re gonna need a bigger salt cellar.

It’s that time of year when the hacks need something to write about and the blogs need to have a moan about something.

Here at Etims we just make stuff up.

One story which emerged from a puddle of pee is that Ruud van Nistelrooy not only thought he was being hired to replace Ange Postecoglou, he was sure enough about it to go out and buy a pair of green and white trainers to fit in….

Like these.

Probably.

In the meantime, the media have their own angle on what yet could prove to be a highly succesful transfer window just as easily as it could prove to be a disaster….

Michael Gannon warns tension will start to show as Celtic’s slow start to summer window rumbles on ahead of USA trip.  

Some fans are still of the opinion that the only outlay a football club has is transfers, and so therefore if there’s £100m in the bank that’s ten ten million pound players, who presumably won’t ask for wages.

And will pop into a sports shop to buy their own kit on their way to sign.

Of all the criticisms aimed at the board, financial incompetence isn’t one of them. In a difficult environment, they have done what they have been asked to do, and produced a business that has seen it’s share price hit record levels.

The tricky bit is spending it wisely. when buying a player, which again, some seem to forget, there are too many variables to guarantee against a huge loss. That’s why we have used the loan with an option path a few times, which has been successful to an extent.

As with Jota and Carter Vickers, and now Bernardo, it doesn’t feel like a new signing when the bill is paid. but it still counts as a payable, and isn’t a huge loss if it doesn’t work out.

We’ll get a couple of loans in this summer, of that there’s little doubt. but whilst that sounds disappointing, think of it more of us giving the player a season long trial, and suddenly it sounds like we’re being a little more prudent, and a little more sensible.

Speaking of sensible….

Mark Dingwall, who has been known to ramble a bit, is holding back from pointing out that their club/company is in the shit. What he’s not holding back from is following the narrative that there is an escape goat ….to coin a phrase…. and that would be their former CEO who they are trying to paint as a fool, who now earns a seven figure salary elsewhere , which were he a fool, he probably would have struggled to get.

Dingwall probably has his application for the job already in the post, and given the current er, problems over the river, it’s hard to see how even he could make things worse.

The latest is , as ever, hidden away on the desks of lodges up and down the country, and the only thing we can be certain of is that the official line that some steel is a bit late turning up is not the problem…though it’s not like them to tell fibbers.

As the ever dependable Rangers Tax Case points out…