After Martin O'Neill decided to leave Celtic, after a heady period of trophy-grabbing, the club decided to change its strategy.
Instead of a squad of solid pros on hefty wages, any new manager would need to build a squad of cheaper players to drive wage costs down - with the occasional marquee signing thrown in who could enthuse the fans and help the club market itself in new ways.
So Roy Keane joined his boyhood heroes after losing the plot at Man Utd, and Gordon Strachan also had to fit Shunsuke Nakamura into the team to help the Japanese merchandise sales.
Now Ki Sung Yueng has come from FC Seoul to do the East Asian thing, and now the big news - Robbie Keane has arrived on loan for the rest of the season.
A quality player, of course, but his wage demands (rumoured to be £65,000 a week) make an absolute mockery of Celtic's wage structure.
He hasn't just been signed for his footballing ability, then, but to get the supporters back through the gates (Parkhead had at least 20,000 empty seats when Hibs visited last week) and get some more shirts sold - maybe even those hideous bumble bee away strips.
The weirdest thing about it is that, with Celtic bundled out of Europe, Keane will be playing on a solely domestic stage. Can they close that 10 point gap to Rangers? It's possible, but by no means certain. But you can bet that more people will be watching.
Full transfer round up here.
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