He said: "There has not been a significant change in the money we will earn. If you say 'right Gordon, you've got an extra £50million', we would throw away the targets we have and go for some others. But the increased revenue is not going to change anything. What we are looking for are players at levels we can afford.

"The next level costs another £35million to £40million and we have not got that. If you look at the strikers in England, anybody who is reasonably decent costs £5million and there are players at £5million to £6million who have scored two goals so it is very hard because we don't have that money. So the players who the scouts have been looking at in the last four or five months are not going to change in the next two weeks nor is our wage structure. Nothing is going to change."

The former Coventry and Southampton boss was keen to stress just how well Celtic have done to overcome in-built budgetary constraints.

He said: "Do you know how much the back four against AC Milan the other night cost us? Nothing.

"To qualify twice in the trot for the last 16 of the Champions League is a terrific achievement for these players, they should be so proud of themselves.

"It is absolutely phenomenal because the teams in the last 16 really are the top sides. We beat Spartak Moscow (to qualify), one of the best teams in Europe. We take pride in the fact that when we were two nothing down against Shakhtar in the first group stage game on a cold horrible night in Donetsk, we were written off.

"We then come back and beat the European champions, AC Milan. We get the body blow of losing after being four minutes away from a great result in Benfica and then we beat them comfortably (at home).

"We had to beat Shakhtar at home. We go a goal down and lose two of our back four but still come back to win. That was a terrific, terrific performance."