PAUL LAMBERT had eight largely successful years as a Celtic player.

He has also spent the best part of the past decade managing in England. It gives him the perfect platform to comment on finance in football and just where the balance of power lies in the relationship between the two nations. The short answer is not with the Scottish champions.

The removal of Rangers from the picture, extended this week for another year at least, has allowed Celtic to stockpile one championship after another, and with that gain annual access to the moneypot that is Champions League football. Add in the profitable habit they have developed in selling at least one player a year for a multi-million pound figure and it is little surprise that their balance sheet is in very rude health indeed.

It is all relative, however. Celtic may be the undoubted kings of the heap in Scotland but the sums they can generate still pale into significance compared to the revenues of even the most modest of Premier League clubs down south. A lucrative television contract that Scottish football can only dream of is the principle reason for that. Barring another unwelcome attempt to barge their way into the English set-up, there is next to nothing Celtic can do about that.

It is why, Lambert believes, the traffic from Celtic Park to the Barclays Premier League will continue to flow largely in one direction. Celtic have broken the trend a few times in recent times - taking Jason Denayer and John Guidetti on loan from Manchester City, and lining up Dedryck Boyata from the same club on a permanent deal - but when it comes to recruiting top-level talent, Lambert believes his former club will be sellers more often than they are buyers.

Virgil van Dijk is the latest Celtic player to be attracting serious interest from English clubs. Manager Ronny Deila has repeatedly stated his intention to hold on to the Dutch defender but resistance has proved futile in the past whenever similar scenarios have arisen. Gary Hooper, Victor Wanyama and Fraser Forster were all courted in the past and eventually moved on, Celtic claiming hefty transfer fees in return. Lambert believes it is now just the way of things.

"How do you compete with the money in England?" asked the former Aston Villa manager as he lent his support to the Tesco Bank Football Challenge event at Hampden. "The reality is that you can't. It's too powerful and it's going to get stronger still.

"Of course, if Celtic are offered £8-9m for [van Dijk] then he'll be sold because that's the way it goes. How can you turn that down? It's impossible.

"I'm pretty sure [loan signings] is a sensible route for them to take. It's a lot to do with finance as well. Can Celtic compete with clubs in the Premier League? No, they can't. But if they take someone from one of those clubs on loan then they're still getting a good player. If they can buy him later on then fine but they're competing in a whole different market."

Boyata has been with City for nine years now but played fewer than 30 first-team matches in that time. Surplus to requirements at the Etihad, he will effectively replace Denayer at the heart of the defence next season. Lambert recalls the Belgian having an imposing physical presence but shied away from comparisons with one former Celtic team-mate.

"He hasn't played many games for City but he is a big, strong lad. The way City are now, it's hard to break into their first team. He has played fleetingly but to dislodge some of those guys, you are going to have to be a top, top defender.

"He's a good signing for Celtic. He's physically stronger than Denayer but he's not too dissimilar in the way he plays. Is he like Bobo [Balde]? No, no...Bobo was the strongest man in the world at that time! He was a big lump of a guy and I always thought when the ball was going over my head, 'go and head it Bobo', which he would do. He's not as physical as Bobo - he was a one-off. But if he can have as good a career as Bobo did at Celtic, he'll be doing all right."

Lambert has been out of work since leaving Villa in February but has not been sitting with his feet up. He has spent time visiting the training grounds of some of European football's biggest clubs and remains hopeful of returning to a dug-out before the start of next season.

"I was at Real Madrid, I went to Bayern [Munich] for a week and I went to Dortmund for nine days. It wasn't a bad way to spend your time! The three managers were terrific with me.

"I'm open to most things. There have been one or two things out there at the minute which I'm thinking about, and one or two things here. I just have to pick the right one. Ideally you would like to get back in somewhere [before the start of the season]."