If Peter Lawwell left the building last year, the final chapter would have been about nine-in-a-row and four consecutive trebles. His legacy (which we will cover at the end of the season) would have been a more straightforward matter to document. Instead, he gets to own a bad season, a cautionary tale to incoming chief executive, Dominic McKay. This job never goes to plan.
He arrived at the club in late 2003 at a time when the lemmings of Scottish football were heading for the cliffs. Celtic had just posted a £11.6m loss despite reaching the Uefa Cup Final, a sum that was dwarfed by Rangers’ £29.6m loss. We lost money every season since Fergus McCann left four years earlier. His first challenge was straightforward, remain competitive and don’t follow Rangers over the edge.
Martin O’Neill was replaced by Gordon Strachan who in his first season had to work with a reduced budget. Revenues grew as the club’s commercial operation matured, so Gordon’s budget soon passed that of Martin’s. Celtic enjoyed a period of financial stability, domestic success and for the first time reached the knock out stages of the Champions League, until then, a fabled nirvana.
If you think this season is the darkest period of Peter’s tenure you have forgotten about 2011. Gordon lost the league for the first time in 2009, Tony Mowbray lost his only title in 2010 and Neil Lennon lost at the first time of asking in 2011. In the autumn of 2011, we dropped 10 points behind Rangers, who were on track for four-in-a-row.
For me, who started writing a blog about the need for financial stability, those years were a real challenge. We were paying our bills but there is no obligation on football fans to take an interest in the club’s accounts, all most want to see is a winning team, and Rangers were winning what mattered. This debate played out for years on CQN. Some of us knew Rangers were going to crash and burn, although it was not until 2011 that I realised how spectacularly that was going to happen. Others on here talked of “Jam tomorrow”.
It was likely but never inevitable that Rangers would become insolvent. Peter chose a path that guaranteed our survival over matching Rangers’ losses. It made him unpopular, but he felt it was the right path to follow. I agreed.
The world changed in season 2011-12. David Murray sold Rangers to Craig Whyte, an experienced insolvency expert. Craig had a plan to liquidate Rangers, phoenix with a Newco and become incarnate as the body and soul of Oldco.
CQN was always active on Rangers finances, they were as pertinent to the success of Celtic as our own, but I went out on a limb in October that year, with what was a prescient blog, The prepack route for Rangers Newco FC. I predicted Rangers liquidation, the consequential space in the SPL, the consequences for the TV deal, sponsorship deals and for other clubs. I explained how Newco would try to join the top flight and finished with a call to arms to stop it, all months before any of it happened.
Celtic said very little during this period but the role Peter Lawwell played in stopping Newco Rangers slipping straight into the top flight was absolute. The prescience and call to arms in that blog and the many that followed in the months to come, were well informed.
The rise of Neil Lennon as manager culminated in that night against Barcelona in November 2012 but the sands were already shifting below our feet. Barcelona was a peak, not a new plateau. Ronny Deila was manager before he was ready. He won leagues but fatefully blew Champions League qualification.
The appointment of Brendan Rodgers was nothing to do with Dermot Desmond watching Newco directors celebrate a semi-final win at Hampden, Dermot was on an aeroplane by then, it was more about chance. Brendan was out of work, a Celtic fan and in need of a place to restore his managerial reputation. Despite the titles, Celtic were flagging. He filled the stands, boosted every revenue stream and won five trophies, before leaving us at the altar of back-to-back trebles.
Few of us were inspired when Neil Lennon was appointed permanent manager after securing that second treble against Hearts. Brendan was sacked by Liverpool, Neil ‘mutual-ed’ by Hibs, by any measure, a downgrade. That night in Rome 14 months ago, when Celtic recorded their first win on Italian soil, the decision look inspired, but not for the first time, the sands were already shifting below our feet.
The collapse this season had been nothing to do with fans not being at games, players isolating or any other nefarious reason. We got our football operations wrong, it is as simple as that. You and I will regret this for a long time, as will Peter Lawwell.
We will lose the league to a Newco Rangers who (pre-crisis) have annual losses approaching Oldco’s when Peter took over. Losing the league hurts, but financial fundamentals ultimately determine the future. This lesson from the Peter Lawwell era will endure. Good luck to Dominic McKay, he has a big sharp suit to fill.
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was this the last penalty given against the group of clubs called “ra rangers”
————-
PictureThis Scotland
@74frankfurt
·
8h
Frank McGarvey of St Mirren. (Apps 304, Goals 102). Pictured scoring a penalty at Ibrox in 1977.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Es4eVcfW4AE0wjZ?format=jpg&name=medium
Terrymac
Well, yes, I did guess 1949 !
Mind you, your posts make you look much younger :-))
Opinions are just that but they are not all of equal value. I would think that Scott Brown`s opinion is more informed than is that of most, if not ALL, posters. That being so, I feel this is worthy of a repost:
“DENIABHOY on 29TH JANUARY 2021 3:20 PM
Scott Brown interview on PL.
https://twitter.com/celticfc/status/1355168414290075651?s=21”
Cheerio for now.
Fat Charlies jig seems to have been dropped from Shortie…………….
GO for res 12 now!
Lost Glasgow
@LostGlasgow
·
24 Jan
While Soho in London boasts glitz, glamour and its own seedy sex appeal, in the 1930s, Calton’s Soho Street Farm boasted a donkey, geese, a shaggy-looking sheep, a goat, and a shovel for shifting the sh*t!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EsgtraQXIAEnCrD?format=jpg&name=small
Leave Nothing unterned.
If moreorless isn’t cited then it’s Huns that should lead the criticism – can’t think of a clearer example.
The SFa specifically.
Clancy’s Performane was Insidious.
What are we expecting Scott Brown to say, to say that his opinion is of more worth than the paying customer is absurd, who is the great opinion adjudicator. He has his opinion others have there’s.
Presently PL’s tenure will be viewed thru the prism of our own confirmation bias’
Some good, some bad, some could’ve done better
SAINT STIVS on 29TH JANUARY 2021 3:29 PM
was this the last penalty given against the group of clubs called “ra rangers”
——
lovely technique👍
Peter and Celtic
Neil Lennon
Another we need to make Sure the Huns Survive.
By the way I try to say Hearts hate Celtic More than Hibs.
Truth.
4×3
Get it right up ye.
Thank You Neil Francis Lennon.
GO TELL THE SPARTIM on 29TH JANUARY 2021 3:58 PM
Do you honestly believe that one person`s opinion is as valid as another`s REGARDLESS of how well or how poorly informed either conributor is?
SFA charge Morelos.
Huns = Hibs
sorry meant ‘ go for res 12 now?’
“YOGIHUGHES on 29TH JANUARY 2021 4:04 PM
SFA charge Morelos.”
Good. If they hadn`t , maybe Police Scotland would have :-))
even BSR’s back to his best straightaway😊
Neil’s Presser
So his greatest achievement was us not going bust the same way as Oldco.
The trophy haul can’t be argued with but maybe BR leaving and the reasons behind it may have been a hint that the modern game was passing him by. Probably should’ve gone with Rodgers…
Adidas Friday CSC
Irvine Welsh , we should get him to comment on our games
https://twitter.com/i/status/1355100547431456769
Highland__Paddy
@Highland__paddy
·
21h
Enhanced image of Jock Stein with his wife Jean showing off the Scottish Cup in 1954.
Alongside them are Charlie Tully and trainer Alex Dowdells Four leaf clover
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Es11sXAXcAAcPin?format=jpg&name=medium
Highland Paddys colourizations are just exceptionally good, what a service that bhoy does for the celtic public.
https://twitter.com/Highland__paddy/status/1354869577361063937/photo/1
is this the greatest group of celts ever assembled for one picture, what would be the total number fo medals won for this group of legends.
who is the bhoy between kenny and danny ?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EsR5D1sXUDUv6jF?format=jpg&name=medium
GTTF @ 2.11
Totally agree — our high water mark of the past 20 years was to see BM dance on the CP turf to celebrate them scraping a draw.
Seville was lower.
PL did some good things and some not so good(being kind) welcome to the new CEO.
I hope it’s just the start.
Saint Stivs, keep up the good work, excellent👍
Neil re the new guy
“I haven’t had dialogue with him. I only became aware of it this morning so maybe in time over the next few months I will get to meet him or get to talk to him”
Peter in happier times
Brendan Rodgers
“I was obviously aware when I was there what the long-term plan would be and that at some point over the next few years this would be the case,” said the Northern Irishman. “You only have to look at how Celtic is run as a business and the figures behind that to see how well he has done there.
“He has brought great stability to the club and you only have to look at the bank balance to see he has run the club extremely well
“He loves the club and has a real passion for Celtic and it will be a sad day when he does retire, but he will always be a Celtic supporter.
“He’s done a fantastic job and he will step aside and someone else will come on in and take on the mantle.”
So Brendan knew when he was there, but Neil only found out this morning…
saint stivs @ 4.25
Think many on here prefer to see things in black and white!
St. Stivs what, or who, has Jinky just spotted in that picture?!
Auldheid
I sent you an email to the address I had, can you confirm you received it when you have a minute, thanks.
How is the new guy going to handle sevco I wonder in terms of ‘congratulations on winning your 55th title’ or ‘congratulations on winning your first ever top flight title’ ?
Will he please the sevconians or will he please us? Tough one for a diplomat.