After watching both teams' display in the transfer window, there's no doubt that Rangers fans will be the most worried. They needed to recoup some money to pay the debt taxes owed to the HMRC (which have reached the astonishing sum of £49m), so the Rangers board was somehow forced to sell their star frontman, the Croatian Nikica Jelavic who has left the SPL in order to join Everton for a fee quoted around £5.5m.

Ally McCoist has tried to minimise this loss by sealing the arrival of some unknown players, in whom the side's title hopes will be based until the end of the season: 21-year-old Swedish starlet Mervan Celik, who came to Glasgow under freedom of contract after leaving former club GAIS. He is required to add some needed trickery to the Gers and to create chances for the strikers left in Ibrox: the Northern Ireland pair formed by Kyle Lafferty and David Healy. Although the transfer window is now closed, McCoist will remain on the look-out for some cheap options: players under freedom of contract that are without a club, a pretty difficult market to find a decent player for a side whose aspirations are lifting the title by the end of May.

Celtic fans will be the happiest in Glasgow today, their team didn't lose any of its top players like Hooper, Izaguirre, Kayal or Ki Sung Yong, while they've freshened up their squad with some new faces. They've opted, like their Glasgow neighbours, for some unknowns that won't require any big money. Nigerian playmaker Rabiu Ibrahim has arrived after being freed up by his latest club PSV Eindhoven. A former World U17 champion with his country, he will hope to put his career back on track after some disappointing experiences in Europe, where he hasn't been able to fulfil his (once labelled as tremendous) potential. The other fresh faces in Parkhead are Mikael Lustig, a 23-capped Swedish international right back coming from Rosenborg after his contract was terminated in December, he has been training with the team for the whole of January and is expected to make his debut soon; and finally Celtic look to increase their firepower in front with the arrival of Pawel Brozek, a Polish international striker coming on loan until the end of the season from Turkish outfit Trabzonspor, Neil Lennon hopes that Brozek's hunger to compete in the Euro 2012 (hosted in Poland, Brozek's country) will lead him to score many goals while adding some needed competition for their place to the main goalscorers Gary Hooper and Anthony Stokes. Finally, extending their view to the summer transfer window, Lennon has signed former Bolton Wanderers youngster Jaroslaw Fojut. The centre-back will come to Glasgow once his contract with Slask Wroclaw (leaders of the Ekstraklasa league) finishes in June.

Looking at the picture as a whole, we can clearly see that both clubs, once powerhouses in the transfer market, have reduced their budgets due to the financial state of Scottish football. They are now forced to find the cheapest foreign talent while, at the same time, they have to nurture the best young players in Scotland. Both are complicated tasks, especially when clubs down south come calling, the latest departure of players like Scott Allan from Dundee United to WBA, or Jack Grimmer, from Aberdeen to Fulham, leave the SPL and its clubs in a difficult position, and with reduced faith for their foreseeable future.