THE SPEND IS NIGH

Gers chiefs must just be about to show their hand when it comes to transfer kitty.. and how Bren's champs react will be fascinating

- KEITH JACKSON

FOR the time being, Celtic will position themselves on! a watching brief. And there will be plenty for them to take in and process from across the city over the course of the next few days.

Simply keeping up with the! guy next door is not enough.

On the contrary, the strategy since the turn of the century has been staying at least one step ahead of the neighbours at every turn.

And, let's be blunt, Rangers have made that task comfortably achievable over the last decade or so of ritual, almost compulsory self-harming at the top of the Ibrox staircase.

It's been easy pickings at Parkhead for so long now that Celtic may have forgotten what it feels like to have a genuine challenge on their own doorstep.

And that is precisely why all, eyes will be on Andrew Cavenagh this morning, as he fronts up his American takeover for the first time at his club's extraordinary general meeting in Glasgow city centre Cavenagh will take his seat at the top table as the new chairman and owner, having headed up the US-based consortium that has splashed out a small fortune to buy a 51 per cent controlling interest in the club.

Top of Cavenagh's agenda will be the passing of a resolution that will allow him and his team to pump an additional £20million into the transfer kitty that has already been set aside for new head coach Russell Martin to spend in the summe market.

As a matter of course, it will be ratified and sanctioned by the shareholders but it's what else Cavenagh might say at 11am this morning that will, really capture the interest of the other side from across town.