AIDEN McGEADY will return to Celtic's starting XI tonight and be handed the chance to help put the champions' nose back in front in the race to the SPL pot of gold.

This will be no act of admission by manager Gordon Strachan that he got it wrong by leaving the Republic of Ireland midfielder out of his side at Ibrox on Saturday.

It is merely further confirmation that he will continue to select the players he believes are best equipped to get a victory on any given day.

But there is more at stake than any kind of popularity contest. Much, much more.

Failure to recover instantly from the disappointment of surrendering the lead in the championship to Rangers at a crucial stage in the season by leapfrogging them back to pole position would turbo-charge the momentum Walter Smith's side have built up in their run of seven successive wins, culminating in the defeat of Celtic at Ibrox.

If Rangers can further extend their advantage by winning against Hibs tomorrow, the way would be open for them to be crowned champions this weekend.

Conceding the title they have held for the past three years would have far-reaching implications at many different levels within Celtic Park.

At the very top, failure to secure the guaranteed £10million cheque for direct entry to the Champions League would impact on plans for the close season and the following campaign.

Strachan has spent £32m in his four years at the club, while bringing in around half that amount. That's an average yearly spend of just £4m for a side which has tried to compete at the very top level of European football.

All the while the wage bill has been reduced from its peak in the Martin O'Neill days, offsetting a proportion of that net spend. Simultaneously, the average age of the side has been reduced as the value of it has increased.

The club's debt, which was hovering around the £32m mark a few short years ago, is now negligible at a time when the need for fiscal stability has never been greater.

But the requirement to cut running costs even more is ever-present, matched only by the constant need to win trophies. And, it does not require a degree in accountancy to understand that, if the money attached to success is not forthcoming, projected spend must be re-assessed.

Just like at the end of any season, there are contracts which require attention, either in terms of being extended or renewed.

Paul Hartley, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Shunsuke Nakamura are three first-team regulars who are entering the final few weeks of their current deals.

In the case of Hartley and Vennegoor, negotiations have been put on hold while the focus is directed totally towards the battle to retain the title.

Nakamura is a more complex issue as much depends on the ability of Yokohama Marinos to come up with the finances to take him back home.

Not quite so pressing, but nevertheless business which would be better attended to sooner rather than later, is the contract situation regarding the man just voted Scottish Football Writers' Association and Clydesdale Bank Player of the Year, Gary Caldwell.

The club have already exercised the 12-month extension clause which keeps him safe until next summer.

But the season the 27-year-old has enjoyed will undoubtedly have brought him to the attention of clubs south of the border and beyond, only too willing to capitalise on any perceived reluctance by Celtic to deal him in with the kind of contract he now believes he has earned.

There is no suggestion that the financial pendulum which has seen Celtic significantly outperform Rangers for the past several years is now about to swing on the back of a possible change of address for the SPL championship flag.

The Parkhead club have done too much careful ground work for such a sea-change to occur, and they will continue to be in a better place than their ancient rivals no matter how this season shakes down.

However, there would be a price to pay for finishing second. The full effects would be felt for some time to come, some more noticeable than others as the implications filter through every layer of the club.

That will be the last thing on the mind of Strachan or any of his players as they prepare for tonight's game against United.

No-one at the club has given up on this title, experience of last season acting as a barrier to any doom and gloom which might have threatened to follow them out of Ibrox.

Only when the dust has finally settled on the campaign and the prizes are decided will the time for reflection and projection arrive.

What is already clear, however, is that there is all to play for - perhaps more so than in any season for many, many years.