IT promises to be quite a summer of transfer activity in Scotland.

Brendan Rodgers has revealed that he would be prepared to break the Celtic transfer record – which currently stands at a cool £6 million - should the right player become available.

Across the city at Rangers, meanwhile, chairman and major shareholder Dave King has vowed that every penny banked from the sale of season tickets, which could be as much as £11 million, will be invested in the first team squad.

But no matter how much is spent by the Parkhead and Ibrox clubs in the coming weeks it will be small change in comparison with the sums splashed out down in England, across Europe and further afield in Asia.

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Manchester United broke the world transfer record last summer when they shelled out an astonishing £89.3 million for France and Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba.

It is not beyond the realms of possibility that could be bettered, and the £100 million ceiling broken through, during this close season.

Manchester City, who have had, by their own high standards, a desperately disappointing debut season under Pep Guardiola, will look to strengthen and launch more of a challenge for both the Barclays Premier League and Champions League titles next term.

The same, though, will be true across the continent, particularly in the other “Big Five” leagues in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

However, the biggest spenders in this close season could once again be in China where the sudden rise in popularity of the game in the last few years has taken world football aback and the figures parted with for players staggering.

Chinese Super League clubs made a total of 173 signings and lavished £325 million on players during the winter transfer window last year.

The £60 million sale of Oscar from Chelsea to Shanghai SIPG back in December was the 10th most expensive transfer of all-time and the Brazilian midfielder quadrupled his wages in the process.

The unprecedented spending spree has sent shock waves throughout Europe with both Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and his Chelsea counterpart Antonio Conte admitting it was a threat to English football.

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Even the Chinese government, which has sparked the transformation of the game there by setting ambitious targets to become a global football super power and win the World Cup, has become concerned.

In January a statement from the General Administration of Sport seemed to signal an end to the boom - they ordered a clampdown on “irrational investment” and vowed to “regulate and restrain high-priced signings and make reasonable restrictions on players’ high incomes”.

But the rewards for investing heavily in the sport and achieving success remain great and there appears to be no let up in sight.

John Viola is an established Scottish agent, whose clients have included the likes of Barry Ferguson, Craig Moore and Chris Sutton in the past, who works extensively over in Asia and China and he can see them smashing through the £100 million.

“I have been going over to China for the last five years,” said Viola. “I saw the market there evolving and decided to go out there to do business. It has gone completely bonkers. Carlos Tevez is being paid £615,000 a week by Shanghai Shenhua and he hasn’t even played in their last two games.

“There are many reasons behind it. The first thing, though, is that the government is investing a trillion dollars in football. China has got serious ambitions to win the World Cup. They are deadly serious.

“Last year the government published a document which outlined their ambition to become a world football superpower by 2050. They aim to have 20,000 training centres and 70,000 pitches in place by 2020.

“Bringing in foreign players is seen as important to their development. The arrival of foreign players have raised the profile and the standard of the league. If I’m not at a game on a Saturday now I will sit down and watch a Chinese game on television. That wasn’t the case before.

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“The guys who they are bringing in are showing the Chinese players the standards and levels of professionalism they must attain to succeed at the top level. The Chinese players have improved considerably in the last five years.

“Now, the Chinese players are moving for massive fees as well. Each team must have eight Chinese players. There are only three foreigners allowed in a side. So if you want your team to win the league you must have good Chinese players as well.

Viola continued: “The second thing is the 16 Chinese Super League clubs are owned by companies. These companies are looked upon far more favourably by the government when it comes to contracts being awarded if they are seen to have been investing in clubs.

“The SIPG (the Shanghai International Port Group) for example, have invested crazy money in a club Shanghai, but it is no coincidence that they operate all of the public terminals in the city.

“Will a Chinese club spend £100 million on a player? Definitely. That is a drop in the ocean to some of the Chinese companies who are running the top clubs over there. I think they will break the transfer market record.

“Buying a player for £100 million? Why not? It is nothing to these companies. They also recoup the money in the contracts which they receive for investing in football. As I say, they are looked upon favourably as a result.

“It isn’t just China which is investing in football. In Indonesia and Malaysia far more money is being invested in the game as well.

“One big reason is they have such huge populations. You can sell all sorts of merchandise and apps. If you sell an app to the Chinese community you can have 50,000 people on it in an hour. Celtic have got a limited number of people they can sell to. But in China there are over a billion people.”