Ten years ago, as Celtic prepared to draw a line under the Ronny Deila years, then chief executive Peter Lawwell outlined where the club stood in relation to recruitment.
‘We are a club with Champions League aspirations, but we cannot buy Champions League-ready players,’ he said. ‘We look for potential.’
Around that time, Celtic searched far and wide for hidden gems and their endeavours were frequently rewarded.
Fraser Forster, Victor Wanyama and Virgil van Dijk were among those plucked from relative obscurity and sold on for princely sums after demonstrating their worth domestically and on the continental stage.
The trouble was that the club’s success in certain instances led to a rigid and flawed transfer policy.
Seeking out the next bargain so they could be developed and eventually punted to the highest bidder became an obsession when it should have been merely one facet of the overarching strategy.
Kasper Hogh announced himself to Celtic fans with a first-half hat-trick against Kilmarnock
Rather than picking their targets carefully in untapped markets, Celtic adopted a scattergun approach.
All too often, the club shelled out modest fees, crossed its fingers, and hoped against hope that it had caught the next big thing on the way up.
More often than not, the fanbase were left watching through the cracks in their fingers as journeymen like Stefan Scepovic, Mo Bangura and Amido Balde went through the motions.
The moral of the story? There are and always will be underrated and underpriced goalkeepers, defenders and midfielders out there. But when it comes to strikers – the most sought-after and scouted position in the global game – you tend to get what you pay for. And Champions League-ready strikers are going to cost you a pretty penny.
For all the criticism which can justifiably be made about the glacial pace with which the current Parkhead hierarchy does business, they do appear to have now grasped this fact.
Camilo Duran scored five goals in ten appearances for Qarabag in last season’s Champions League. They came against Benfica, Ajax, Eintracht Frankfurt (twice) and Newcastle.
The Danish front man scored the first of his Rugby Park treble with a close-range header
At an initial fee of £5.5million, Celtic hardly had to break the bank to land the Colombian, but they have moved away from the bargain aisle which saddled them with more liabilities than assets.
Despite playing out of position on the right in his first two matches, the pedigree of the 25-year-old forward is evident.
At £11million plus add ons, Kasper Hogh is the most expensive signing in Celtic’s history after completing his move from Bodo/Glimt.
Like Duran, once upon a time, he would have been considered unattainable purely on account of the fact that he netted against Manchester City (twice), Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan and Sporting Lisbon in last year’s competition.
Yet a profile such as his and the accompanying price tag were never outwith Celtic’s reach. For too long, the club were boxed in by parameters of their own making.
This perplexing attitude contributed to a patchy attendance record at the business stage of UEFA’s showpiece tournament. An acknowledgement that you should be in the market for Champions League-ready players is the first step to ensuring any club is a Champions League regular.
Ahead of a play-off with LASK, Celtic have made a commendable start by acquiring Duran and Hogh, although Martin O’Neill will require other positions to be similarly strengthened if Austrian champions are to be overcome.
Hogh already looks like justifying that investment in short order. He was simply scintillating in Celtic’s 5-1 win at Rugby Park, the first half hat-trick he claimed only part of the story.
Hogh sealed his hat-trick inside 35 minutes when he stooped to head home a Duran cross
It was his ease on the ball and link-up play which truly caught the eye. Hogh doesn’t have Kyogo Furuhashi’s explosive burst of pace but his movement in the penalty box – finding half a yard of space when there appears to be none – was reminiscent of the great Japanese.
Despite being 6ft 1in, he’s not a target man in the traditional sense yet he will pose an aerial threat which Celtic have lacked.
‘Hogh is a new star,’ said former Scotland winger Pat Nevin after witnessing him tear Killie apart. ‘And the Celtic fans have got someone they are going to fall in love with because he looks to me like a total and utter natural goalscorer, as well as a good technical player as well.
‘Celtic loved Daizen Maeda with his work rate, and before that Kyogo Furuhashi, but this guy looks like he can fill those shoes with some ease.
‘I can remember watched Kyogo in his first game and thinking: “Oh, my word, you could be the new Henrik Larsson” because of his movement and he’s that good.
‘After 45 minutes, I’m looking at Hogh and thinking this isn’t a fluke. Some players can come in and get a hat-trick and it’s a bit lucky because you find yourself in the right position.
‘No, this is a player, this is a striker who knows where the goal is, knows where to go, has intelligent movement and there’s his link-up play as well.’
Hogh has already made his mark in Europe with goals against the likes of Manchester City
Hogh’s certainly an intriguing character. Even at the age of 25, his is a relatable story of redemption and self-betterment.
Born in the small city of Randers on the Jutland peninsula, he was a prolific scorer at youth level with his local club yet failed to make an appreciable impact in the first team.
An unremarkable loan spell in Iceland with Valur followed, with a subsequent move to Danish minnows Hobro IK in the second tier disrupted by injury.
No trees were pulled up when he moved to Aalborg, but eight goals in 14 matches on loan at newly promoted Norwegian side Stabaek was the first real suggestion that he had something.
Kjetil Knutsen, Bodo/Glimt’s wily manager, recognised this and signed Hogh on a pre-contract which began at the start of 2024.
This arrangement was contingent on Hogh shelving the party-loving lifestyle he’d become renowned for in Denmark. Knutsen memorably warned him it was time to ‘put away the cowboy hat’.
Hogh’s Christian faith also deepened when he moved to the small city above the Arctic Circle, the inner-peace it brought him off the field manifest on him optimising his potential on it.
In his first year, his 12 league goals helped Bodo/Glimt retain their title, with his seven strikes in Europe taking them to the semi-finals of the Europa League.
The 25-year-old is not short of confidence and has been entertaining in post-match interviews
In the last calendar year, he hit 17 goals including those five in the Champions League which showcased his ability to the watching world.
Having paid a substantial transfer fee that’s no more than the going rate for a striker of Hogh’s age, ability and potential, Celtic might well make good on their investment in a single season.
Provided that potential is continuously realised on the European stage, two or three years from now the would-be suitors will be talking telephone numbers in transfer fees.
Those who long railed against the boat being pushed out into football’s shark-infested waters will disagree but paying a premium for the most important player on the field has always been imperative.
If unearthing superstar strikers for pocket change was that easy, more clubs would try it.
