Former Celtic talent spotter John Park insists he thrived on under the radar transfers - despite the club shifting their signing approach after his departure in 2016.
The 63-year-old was lauded for his vital role in helping assemble a squad which would dominate Scottish football and secure a historic quadruple Treble.
Virgil van Dijk, Moussa Dembele and Victor Wanyama were among his hits as he landed a host of gems at a bargain before being sold for a significant profit.
And now Park has reflected with the The Athletic about an era that spanned 14 years as his final Celtic signing Ryan Christie left Glasgow for Bournemouth on deadline day.
But the recruitment specialist - now working with Tony Mowbray at Blackburn - is adamant he wouldn't have wanted a bumper signing kitty despite the likes of Odsonne Edouard and Christopher Jullien arriving for big fees following his exit.
He said: “Never, never in my life. I find it strange that people spend that amount of money on some players when you can find 100 players just as good, if not better, for a portion of that money. Have Celtic spent money and done well? I don’t know. You look at Edouard: £9 million. But then you include his wages for a couple of million, and then the sell-on (40 per cent of profit to PSG), is that value for money?
“There are some excellent young players out there that you can find through the right tools and processes, which the right scouting team can deliver. I’m totally convinced of that.
“That’s the part of it I love.”
And he saluted former chief executive Peter Lawwell for allowing him to work without constraints in the search for signing successes.
The club shifted strategy in the years after Martin O'Neill's departure and Park was tasked with finding a different type of target as Premier League stars were replaced by emerging youngsters in South Korea, Israel and Belgium.
He added: “I was never asked by Peter (Lawwell) to balance the books. We never once spoke about it. If the right type of player was available at a good price for each of the coaches, for each manager I worked with, then Peter was happy to work with that.
“We were ahead of the game. We had our own data analysis department back then, with Craig Dunbar and Paul McLeish.
"They ascertained the facts from the data to compare players and value them against what we’d got in the club at the present. When you look at the stats and leverage them against the scouting reports, you come to the conclusion that they can be the right ones for the club.”
Park also insists he is as proud of the "bread and butter" signings who thrived in Glasgow just as much the marquee names who departed for big money.
Adam Matthews, Joe Ledley, Kris Commons and Gary Hooper arrived for free or on nominal fees and the transfer specialist insists those deals were vital to his approach.
"It’s a lowball game, a Moneyball game, but it’s down to the staff behind the scenes to spot these guys approaching the end of their contracts, and knowing they’re good enough for Celtic, or at least being confident of it. You can talk about the Virgils (van Dijk), Moussas, but those bread and butter players who have come in for little or nothing have done every bit as much for Celtic as the big names.”
