When Liverpool paid £75m for Virgil van Dijk from Southampton, Celtic waited in the wings to collect their sell-on fee which took the amount received for the imperious Dutchman to around £20m - 10 times what they paid Eredivisie side Groningen for his services.
Pundits lined up to applaud another Peter Lawwell masterstroke - the man with the midas touch whose coaches and scouts were earning a reputation for spinning cotton into gold.
The Hoops had turned healthy profits on Aiden McGeady, Ki Sung Yeung, Gary Hooper, Fraser Forster, Victor Wanyama, Stuart Armstrong and Moussa Dembele.
Then there was the record £25m for crown jewel Kieran Tierney from Arsenal - those eight players alone brought £100m into the coffers at Parkhead to help balance the books.
On the surface this appears like great business - and it is - but delving a little deeper uncovers a huge problem which Eddie Howe, if he takes the Celtic job, will surely have to address.
The waste on busloads of players who simply couldn’t cut the mustard is mind-boggling; in the 11 years since Neil Lennon first took the manager’s job, the Hoops have brought over 100 signings into the club.
While generating revenue from transfer fees is key, how the money is reinvested is surely of equal importance and in this regard the recruitment at Parkhead has left a lot to be desired.
In a state of the nation address following Rangers’ title triumph, Ibrox chief Dave King bombastically accused the Celtic board of arrogance and pointed to a lack of spend on team strengthening as being key to his own club wresting the title away.
He may have got the arrogance part right but he was quite wrong in regards to investment; in the summer past Celtic spent a significant amount on fees, loans and wages on Moi Elyounoussi, Vasilis Barkas, Diego Laxalt, Shane Duffy and Albian Ajeti.
The problem was not with what was spent - it was who it was spent on. It was clear Celtic needed a striker and Peterborough’s Ivan Toney was the main target.
In the end, despite the player wanting to come north, the Hoops refused to pony up the cash and spent slightly less on Ajeti - whose input has become something of an embarrassment.
The Swiss looks unfit, moody and disinterested while Toney has torn it up in the Championship, scoring 28 goals for new club Brentford and emerging as a target for several Premier League clubs.
Unfortunately for Lawwell and those underneath him - this is no accident. Teemu Pukki, Mohamed Bangura, Amido Balde, Stefan Scepovic, Nadir Ciftci, Carlton Cole, Colin Kazim-Richards, Patrick Klimala - there appears to be an endless list of gambles on strikers who just weren’t up to it.
Steven Fletcher, John McGinn and others, meanwhile, were allowed to disappear south while Celtic haggled over pennies.
Then there is the phantom that is Barkas; billed as the £5m man to fill Fraser Forster’s shoes but truth be told Neil Lennon might as well have placed a scarecrow in nets - and some might argue in Scott Bain that is exactly what he did.
Then there is Duffy - a great signing on paper who would surely find Scotland a breeze given he’d held his own in England for years. While hindsight has 20/20 vision, his signing has been a disaster, his weaknesses brutally exposed by the way Celtic play.
Massive questions have been posed as to why such a player - who is best suited to defending the edge of his own box - was brought to the club in the first place. Where was the data analysis? Who gave the OK?
While Howe will represent something of a coup if his appointment is confirmed, finding a new manager is only one of a host of problems incoming CEO Dominic McKay will have to solve if the club is to regain the championship.
The Parkhead board is reportedly on the hunt for a Director of Football with Man City’s Fergal Harkin - a Donegal native - linked with the position.
The entire operation is in need of an overhaul; Rangers looked fitter, hungrier and better coached. Their recruitment under Mark Allen appeared to have purpose and was part of a plan.
Celtic by contrast looked unfit, disorganised with players brought to the club with no real idea of how they’d adapt.
There is serious work ahead but one thing is for sure - the penny-wise, pound-foolish spend on everything from facilities, to managers and players has to cease.
If Celtic wish to be regarded as top European club then it has to start acting like one.
