CELTIC were the only club in Scotland to buy a player in the transfer window.

As a barometer of where the game in this country is, that should send a chill through everyone.

The £2.3million paid to Sporting Gijon for Stefan Scepovic looks like loose change when compared to the record £835m splashed out by clubs down south - led by Manchester United - who parted with £149m before the deadline on Monday night.

If ever the gulf between the haves and have nots was exposed, it was surely through the drawn-out weeks of this window.

The cash sloshing around down south, courtesy of an enhanced television deal kicking in, has left every other league in the world struggling to compete for signings.

The SPFL Premiership has long since been left trailing in the monster's wake. Now, even Scotland's richest and "best-run" club - to quote Peter Lawwell - can't contemplate vying with Championship outfits, let alone Premier League ones, for anyone who comes on to the market.

The chief executive and the manager, Ronny Deila, are in accord when they fess up wages alone preclude them from getting would-be targets even to take a call.

It's a harsh fact of modern-day life which many supporters simply don't want to hear, trapped in a time-warp which convinces them the name Celtic should be enough to lure players to a league which holds no currency in global terms.

The days of waving, if not a huge wage, but a Champions League carrot, have also gone. The best the Hoops can dangle before players when the window opens is the prospect of taking part in four qualifying ties and two play-offs.

By the time they know if they are in the group stage, wage demands tend to have risen in tandem with the club's income from Uefa.

In the current scenario, with the Europa League the less-than-lucrative compensation for failing to get into the Champions League, more effort and imagination than ever was required to even get players and their agents to consider joining Deila's Bhoys.

The arrival of a new manager is guaranteed to create a state of flux with movement in and out.

There is no disputing the squad the Norwegian inherited did need refreshed. The method adopted to facilitate this is what has left the jury out on how successful a process it ultimately was.

Scepovic is the only purchase. Craig Gordon is the only other permanent signing. The loan system - of which Deila had initially said he was not a fan as he saw no point in developing players for other clubs - was maxed out with Jo Inge Berget, Aleksander Tonev and Wakaso Mubarak all arriving on short-term deals, with the option for Celtic to buy.

Jason Denayer also came in this way, though his talent and value is such that Manchester City were not minded to attach any play-now-buy-later clause in this deal.

Had the paperwork been done in time, John Guidetti would have been yet another loan signing with Celtic, in effect, taking over the final year of his contract with the English champions.

But, like Cameron Jerome, Jeff Louis and a few others who saw covert attempts by Celtic to sign them slip past unnoticed, the Swedish striker got away - for now.

So, where does it leave Deila when he gathers his reshaped squad around him after the international break? Well, it does not appear as strong as the one which ended last season.

Since then, Georgios Samaras has left as a free agent, while £10m has been gathered in from the sale of Fraser Forster and a further £1.2m from Tony Watt's transfer to Standard Liege.

The pruning which has been done in the final few days of the window - with the likes of Teemu Pukki, Amido Balde, Dylan McGeouch, Holmbert Fridjonsson and Jackson Irvine all sent out on loan to reduce the numbers and lower the wage bill - means the changing room at Lennoxtown has different faces and accents.

But it will take a few more weeks before it is possible to assess if the squad is better, and if the shortcomings which were there for all to see have been successfully addressed.

Gordon has already shown he is a capable replacement for Forster, with no sign of any residue of the knee problems which ended his time at Sunderland and condemned him to two years in the wilderness.

Denayer is another to have hit the ground running, though his performance at Dundee last weekend underlined how important it is for the teenager to have Virgil van Dijk alongside him to aid his acclimatisation.

Berget has still to win over the fans, though his fitness is improving, while the injury he brought with him from Aston Villa has meant nothing has yet been seen of Tonev.

Wakaso appears to be a box of crackers waiting to explode on to the Scottish scene, and making sure the Ghanaian channels all his energy and expressiveness the right way could be the biggest challenge in making him an important Celtic player.

However, Scepovic is the key signing for Deila - on so many levels.

The manager has maintained from day one he needed a striker with a physical presence and ability to win the ball and hold it up to see the system he is deploying at its best. The on-off nature of the Serbian's transfer from Spain has resulted in the welcome normally reserved for a new striker being somewhat lukewarm, but nothing a few early goals can't heat up.

Managers are judged on signings, and Scepovic is the one Deila has pinned his faith on, even though he confessed he has never actually seen him play in the flesh.

Deila has spent less than any Celtic manager since the summer transfer window was introduced in 2002.

But, if his meagre outlay does not bring immediate results, he has so much to lose - including the patience and understanding so far afforded him by a support who do not consider just four wins and a Champions League exit a good return from his opening 10 matches in charge.