Spare a thought for the hinges on the front door at Celtic Park.

Since the final game of last season, 11 new players have arrived, while an incredible 22 have exited.

The net result, financially at any rate, is a surplus of around £6.5million. Or, put another way, more than two thirds of the record fee received from the sale of Aiden McGeady.

Put yet another way, it’s the money they would have been guaranteed had they qualified for the Champions League.

The men who hold the purse strings will point to the fact that, with an outlay of just under £10m, Celtic are, once again, by far the biggest spenders in the SPL. Indeed, they have splashed way more than all the other clubs in Scotland put together.

They will also have every right to highlight that, on top of this, signings such as Joe Ledley, although secured for no transfer fee, do not come cheap.

The salary required to convince the Welshman he should ignore overtures from Premier League suitors in favour of Celtic demands a considerable commitment from a club who are battling to reduce their running-costs-to-turnover-ratio.

Daniel Majstorovic, Cha Du-Ri and, to a lesser extent, the other free transfer, Charlie Mulgrew, have also had to be enticed with a decent remuneration.

But, in the eyes of a support who were looking for a blue-chip signing in the shape of a Robbie Keane or Craig Bellamy, none of this will amount to a hill of beans if the squad Neil Lennon has built over the last three months does not return the championship to Parkhead.

With European nights already snatched from their grasp, the embryonic side unable to sustain life beyond the qualifying round of either the Champions League or the Europa Cup, the fans are also concerned about the credentials of this group.

Of course, it is much too soon to make any judgments. But the 100% start made in the SPL title race will have to be extended considerably before faith damaged over the last two disappointing seasons is fully restored.

While the likes of Efrain Juarez, Beram Kayal, Gary Hooper, Emilio Izaguirre and Ledley show genuine promise, for now it is no more than that.

What is not up for debate is that, in this transfer window, the club sold their best player, McGeady, fans’ favourite Artur Boruc, their club captain, Stephen McManus, and saw attempts to bring their top scorer, Keane, back here – either on another loan or permanently – fail to get off the ground.

That is a huge chunk of headliners, and any club would be hard pushed to replace them. Even more of a challenge is to continue to win throughout this state of flux while allowing a new management team time to find its feet.

The consensus is that, even with McGeady gone, the midfield is the department which has emerged from this window stronger.

Replacing Keane up front was always going to be a tough job. And, while Hooper and final signing Anthony Stokes have proved at their previous clubs they have goals in them, only time will tell if these young men can continue to produce when carrying the weight of expectation which comes with leading the line for Celtic.

The defence and goalkeeping position was the area most in need of most attention.

Yet, only £580,000 – paid to Motagua for Izaguirre – has been invested in this department, while attempts to make Nottingham Forest an offer they could not resist for Lennon’s No.1 target, central defender Kelvin Wilson, never materialised.

Will Celtic live to regret this? Well, the clock is already ticking, and the acid test will arrive next month with the first Old Firm game of the season.

By then, they will have accrued a decent amount of interest from this transfer trading surplus, while the reduced wage bill will also make the bank manager happy.

But only results will return smiles to the faces of the fans.

CELTIC MOVES THIS WINDOW

NET TRANSFER PROFIT: £6.47m