ANGE Postecoglou has admitted that he is prepared to sell players in order to make Celtic more of a force in Europe in the wake of the Parkhead club’s exit from the Champions League.

The Scottish champions slumped to a 5-1 defeat to Spanish holders Real Madrid in their final Group F match in the Bernabeu on Wednesday night.

The heavy loss brought an end to a disappointing campaign – the Glasgow outfit finished bottom of the section and missed out on the Europa League preliminary round despite performing well in all of their matches.

Postecoglou is hopeful the experience which his charges have gained in Europe’s premier club competition will help them to make a far bigger impact if they retain the cinch Premiership and return next season.

The Greek-Australian coach has acknowledged that he could lose some of his first team regulars before Celtic play in the Champions League again.

However, he understands that directors have successfully balanced the books for years by offloading outstanding players for large profits - and believes that doing so again will give him a chance to strengthen his squad.

“I think it is an opportunity,” he said. “If our players do well and move on to so-called greener pastures, if that is what they want, then there is an opportunity for me to improve the team. Because, if they are going to leave us we are going to get some revenue in.

“I don’t fear losing our players. I see that as part of the process. If you look at clubs who do well at Champions League level that are our size, what do they do? They develop players, sell them on, and replace them with better versions, hopefully. That is where I think our growth lies.

“I think it is part of the process. I don’t fear that. I think that has to happen for us to grow. We need to be bringing money in to be able to keep bringing better players to our football club.”

Postecoglou has done well in the transfer market since being appointed last year – Joe Hart, Josip Juranovic, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Carl Starfelt, Matt O’Riley, Reo Hatate, Jota, Liel Abada, Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda and Giorgos Giakoumakis have all performed brilliantly for Celtic.

He appreciates that he has to use the funds which he receives to spend on players wisely and has, amid mounting speculation that he could land Japanese defender Yuki Kobayashi, pledged not squander money in future.  

“There have been a couple of managers talking about the fact that we spend a lot of money in the transfer market,” he said. “But we have 60,000 people coming to our games every week. They don’t expect their money to be put in my pocket and just sit in the bank somewhere.

“My responsibility is to make sure that their hard-earned gets invested wisely so that they can be proud of their football team. That is a responsibility. From the outside, sometimes people think ‘ah, just spend money’. But there is a massive responsibility there.”