THE talk was of pushing the boat out but Celtic are operating in financial conditions that may be best described as the imperfect storm.

The twin thrust of Neil Lennon's remarks at Lennoxtown yesterday serve to illustrate the difficulties of being both a big craft in a small pond and a small craft in a big pond.

Celtic not only seek to prosper in the Champions League but they must do so on domestic television money that would in total not pay the wages of the top-class striker the club so obviously needs. Furthermore, the signing of the television deal means that Celtic must travel to Dingwall almost straight from the carousel at Glasgow Airport for an early kick-off this afternoon.

The Celtic manager insisted yesterday his frustration was limited to the lacklustre performance of his players in the first half of the Champions League defeat by Ajax but he must also be reflecting on the realpolitik that both impacts on events in Amsterdam on Wednesday and in Dingwall this afternoon. Charlie Mulgrew, the Celtic utility player, told yesterday of how the team had watched the Ajax match again and admitted: "It wasn't a case of not taking chances the other night. We didn't make many chances to miss, especially in the first half."

This will be the factor exercising Lennon, though he was voluble about the scheduling of a match in the Highlands at lunchtime to follow a tie in the Champions League. The key to Celtic's defeat was craft, or rather the lack of it in the final third of the pitch. "I thought Biram [Kayal] should have hit the target and James [Forrest] has got the 2 v 1 and that looked as though it had a goal written all over it," he said, almost as an aside, knowing that converting these opportunities into goals is what separates the qualifiers from non-qualifiers in Champions League groups.

"They are not flops. If we win our next game then there is the possibility of going second in the group and then the whole thing flips over again and looks a lot brighter psychologically," insisted Lennon.

But, again, the battle for progression must be fought with more than strong wills. Lennon praised his back four against Ajax, with Virgil van Dijk and Mikael Lustig especially prominent, but Celtic could not create from midfield or finish in front of goal. These attributes come at a substantial price. How about a Roberto Soldado, for example? The 28-year-old signed for Tottenham Hotspur, a club not in the Champions League, for £26m and up to £5m a year for wages. Thus in five years he will have cost the English team about £50m with little sell-on fee. This is in the region of a quarter of a century of domestic television money for Celtic.

Lennon thus has to ensure supporters that money will be spent but hope that a proven striker is found at the shallow end of the money pool. "Again, we will try to be inventive on that," said Lennon. "I think that in [Teemu] Pukki we have a player who will score goals. He needs a bit of time to settle but he has shown more indication now that he is getting used to playing the style of football here. I think he will be okay."

But the boat cannot be pushed too far out from the safe haven of financial reality. "Peter [Lawwell, Celtic's chief executive] has given us assurances that there will be money to spend but whether we can spend it and get the right player in that we want is another thing," said Lennon.

Asked about the possibility of acquiring the "finished article", he replied: "That would be lovely." It would also be a piece of unlikely great fortune. Goalscorers are conspicuous at any level. The truth is that several of Celtic's targets have gone to England's Sky Bet Championship on the sort of salaries that would make them the highest-paid player at Parkhead.

"If we do break the wage structure it will not be by a great deal but if we are trying to bring a type of player in we might have to push the boat out a little. But we are realistic with our wage structure," said Lennon.

He was brutally honest on player recruitment. "I think we will spend money. But I think we will sell too. That is the way the strategy has to work."

The name of Fraser Forster remained unspoken but Lennon is already resigned to losing the goalkeeper, perhaps as early as the next transfer window. Progression in the Champions League now looks highly unlikely and the Englishman is an asset valued highly by clubs who count television money in tens of millions per annum.

Lennon, in contrast, cannot view TV as a financial saviour but rather as an irritant as he takes his team north for a league match with minimum preparation. "The players are in today then we go three hours up the road and play an early match. Then I've got 12 players away on international duty. Mikael [Lustig] and Sami [Georgios Samaras] have meaningful games but the rest are friendlies. It drives me up the wall."