THE Uefa Cup final in Seville 10 years ago next week was the end of Celtic's European journey for that memorable season.

More importantly, it was the beginning of the road which has brought them to the point they currently find themselves today.

The club was heavily criticised, from within and without, for not building on the success of getting all the way to their first European final since 1970 by, among others, the then manager, Martin O'Neill, and the current boss, Neil Lennon.

What no one outwith the confines of the inner sanctum of the Parkhead board knew was that Seville was to be the turning point in the club's business plan, the catalyst for the strategy which continues to this day.

The fact the club could get all the way to a European final, with the increase in turnover this generated, yet still record a loss on the annual accounts – something they had been doing for years – demanded the way the club was being operated be addressed.

Dermot Desmond's millions and a couple of share issues had helped fund the extensive and expensive rebuilding undertaken by O'Neill when he arrived in 2000 to pick up the pieces of a club left shattered by John Barnes and Kenny Dalglish and years of neglect in terms of serious investment.

But the Seville season – in which the SPL title was to head back to Ibrox after back-to-back championship wins for O'Neill – finished trophyless.

More importantly, it had cost the club £11.5million in terms of expenditure over income, hoisting their losses for the previous three years to a staggering £20m.

Falling to Basel in the qualifying round meant they had failed to make it into the Champions League group stage, as they had done the previous season, and as they would again.

This unexpected disappointment in late August meant plans to press the button on deals already arranged to bring in more multi-million-pound signings were instantly abandoned.

But even without this extra spend, the figures simply did not add up.

The Uefa Cup was to be the relocation for the club's European dreams. And what a trip it was, travelling through Kaunas, Blackburn, Vigo, Stuttgart, Liverpool and Porto before reaching its final destination on May 21, the Olympic Stadium in sultry Seville.

Along the way, the fans packed Celtic Park, and the turnstiles clicked out a tune of fiscal fortune.

But the business plan demanded Champions League income, and, as season 2002-03 confirmed, this could not be guaranteed.

A radical rethink was required, and the outcome was not what O'Neill wanted to hear.

He believed the foundations were in place, and that the time was right to be bold and build from what he considered a position of strength.

Instead, he was told the days of spending £6m on the likes of Chris Sutton and John Hartson, and just a little less on Lennon, were officially over.

It led to O'Neill's famous prediction that everyone involved would have to get used to life in the slow lane.

By the time Gordon Strachan had stepped into the driving seat two years later – the illness suffered by O'Neill's wife, Geraldine, forcing the by-then despondent Ulsterman to re-evaluate his priorities and vacate the position he had held for five seasons – it was almost a case of calling out a breakdown recovery service.

Strachan was left in no doubt during his interviews with Desmond that the purse strings had been tightened and were not about to be loosened again.

The only money he would have to invest in new recruits would be that which was generated from selling players and removing others from the payroll.

The wage-to-income balance was severely out of kilter – for years running at over 60% – and this was unsustainable.

However, even Strachan did not appreciate how bad the situation had become, post-Seville.

Key cogs in the Green Machine, including Henrik Larsson, Paul Lambert and Johan Mjallby, had already left the club.

In fact, when he took over, Strachan discovered he had only 13 recognised first-team players at his disposal.

And one of them, Bobo Balde, was so busy negotiating his way out of the club that he missed the final training session ahead of the new manager's first game in charge, the infamous 5-0 defeat to Artmedia in Bratislava.

From the slow lane to reverse appeared to be the direction of travel under the fiscal policy instigated after the Seville season.

It was reported to be based on a five-year plan. And, fortunately for all involved, shrewd investment in less expensive players once again turned the juggernaut around.

The success under Strachan extended to taking the club to the last 16 of the Champions League for the first time – something O'Neill could not do with far greater resources available to him at Parkhead.

Like all good business plans, this one has been tweaked along the way, and not even the injudicious wheeling and dealing done by Tony Mowbray during his 10 months in charge after Strachan left could damage to the robust model.

Since Lennon stepped up to right the badly-listing ship, the strategy has been driven by the need to recruit rough diamonds, knock off the ragged edges, allow them to dazzle on the domestic and European stage, then sell then on for a big profit.

Ki Sung-Yueng was a prime example, though, to be fair to Mowbray, he did arrive during his time in charge for a fee around £2m.

His sale to Swansea City last year for three times that outlay was the perfect illustration of the plan in action.

It has taken 10 years to get from the emotion of Seville and the losses incurred to this position of genuine hope, stability and strength.

On the way, other, less prudent clubs have paid the price for failing to follow Celtic's lead.

The last 16 has been reached once again, with the Europa League avoided even as a consolation prize after the group stages of the premier competition.

That meant no possibility of a run to Amsterdam this week. But no one at Parkhead is complaining about that.

Proof that Celtic's sea-change in strategy which was started after Seville is working is there for everyone to see whenever the team takes to the field.

With the likes of Gary Hooper, Victor Wanyama, Fraser Forster, Joe Ledley, Adam Matthews, Emilio Izaguirre, Beram Kayal, Kelvin Wilson, Efe Ambrose and Kris Commons all worth far more than they cost, plus the club's academy – like the scouting network, the subject of heavy investment – producing prodigious talent such as James Forrest, the future is rosy.

In summation, the team which got to Seville, ostensibly, was built on signings who cost many millions, plus, of course, the bargain buy of all time, Larsson.

The present-day team cost only a fraction of that, and, in the main, play for much less in terms of wages than their counterparts a decade ago.

But Celtic 2013 is worth far more than the side of 2003, and that's a strategic victory of which the men in charge of the club should be proud.