CURRENT ACCOUNT: Current Account has never quite fathomed the Irish soccer fan's fascination with Glasgow Celtic. But obviously Dermot Desmond thinks he's onto a good thing when he spends another £1 million sterling (€1.6 million) to increase his stake in Celtic to more than 20 per cent of the ordinary shares.

Whether Dermot Desmond's preoccupation with Celtic is anything more than the indulgence of a very rich man remains to be seen.

But is there any reason to believe that a move by Celtic south of the border to the English first division and potentially the Premiership will do anything for shareholders who have seen the value of their shares tumble from 250p to 50p in two years.

Many of Celtic's shareholders have been there for a long time - ever since Fergus McCann took the club public - and possibly don't view their investment in the club as a moneymaking venture, more an expression of loyalty.

The financial logic of Celtic relocating south of the Pennines seems to be that the presence of Celtic and Rangers will boost the English game to such a degree that the Football League and the Premiership will be able to do very attractive deals with sponsors and television companies like BSkyB.

But if huge television and sponsorship revenues are the keys to football clubs' financial success, then why have shares in Manchester United - supposedly the most valuable football club on the planet and with its logo on anything from Ryan Giggs duvet covers to busts of Fergie - sunk like a stone in the past two years.

The ManU shares mightn't have fared as badly as Celtic, but they have still collapsed from almost 400p two years ago to 120p this week. And that period included one season when ManU strolled away with the Premiership!

That 120p was the price at which one director Maurice Watkins unloaded 455,000 ManU shares this week - hardly the greatest statement of confidence in the shares.

The reality for punters and ordinary football club supporters is that investing in football club shares is an exercise best left to the moneybags like Dermot Desmond, JP McManus and John Magnier.

As long as football clubs - not just in England but across Europe - allow themselves to be held to ransom by players looking for £100,000 a week contracts and where even journeymen pros can demand £30,000 a week, then football fans should just stick to the replica shirts.