The Celtic wage bill that demolishes Dortmund excuse as £56m black hole shows real truth over mortifying night

Celtic have been thrashed off a superior foe - but the cash gap is no excuse.

The Hoops suffered a 7-1 hammering at the hands of Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday night. There was optimism ahead of the clash amid an unbeaten start to the domestic season and 5-1 hammering they dealt to Slovan Bratislava in the previous Champions League match, but they were brought back down to earth with a bump at Europe’s top table.

A talking point in the aftermath of it has been the financial disapirty between Celtic and Dortmund. While it is vast, it isn’t something the Hoops can lean on for cold comfort, as they enjoy a far superior financial advantage on domestic sides.

Finance expert Kieran Maguire crunched some numbers comparing Celtic and Dortmund, and then Celtic and St Johnstone. Dortmund's wage bill of £207.2m is 3.4x that of the Premiership champions, who spend 12.8x the wage bill of St Johnstone.

Celtic’s bill is £60.8m while Saints run at £4.8m, with a £56m hole showing the truth about their cash advantage, that it was simply superior players taking advantage of poor play by their opponents.

Nuri Sahin’s Bundesliga squad cost as per the most recent accounts is 6.1x that of Celtic, whose same cost is a huge 185.7x that of St Johnstone. Dortmund have 2.9x the revenue of Celtic, with St Johnstone trailing the Scottish champions 24.4x.

Next up for Brendan Rodgers and co is Ross County away in the league. But there will be some serious soul searching in the wake of this hammering with regards their ambition in Europe.