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Enduring lesson from Peter Lawwell era

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

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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  1. James Forrest on

    Nobody was suggesting we withdraw from the league.

     

     

    All I’ve ever said we should have done is make a public statement saying they are a new club and to have treated them that way ever since. To refuse to play along with the public endorsement of the Survival Lie, as a point of club policy.

     

     

    And where we go, others would have followed.

  4. !!Bada Bing!! on

    Not a great video from Hibs TV. Sound not great either

     

    Here’s Irvine Welsh talking about Morelos and upsetting the Sevco fans https://t.co/HPz2knWsLs

  7. ernie lynch on

    JAMES FORREST on 29TH JANUARY 2021 6:28 PM

     

     

     

    People are forgetting that back when it happened everyone accepted the truth.

     

     

    The huns had died.

     

     

    It was, literally, front page news.

     

     

    No one denied it or even questioned it.

     

     

    The revisionism only started later. Celtic could have crushed all that with a simple statement and the smaller clubs would have held their nerve.

  8. Terrymac on

    Back to Basics at 3.13

     

     

    Well said that man – and I can only doff my well worn Tam O’ Shanter to someone who, with a straight face, was able to incorporate the word ‘contextualise’ in a post on CQN!

     

     

    Hail! Hail!

  9. oldtim67 on

    I’m one of the few on here whose sorry to hear that Peter Lawwell is retireing from his job at Celtic,I hope you are happy that he’s leaving us,someone who has done great for us in the past.

     

     

    Under PL Celtic only won 29 Trophies , and 13 League Titles. probably the best record from any CEO at Celtic, ever.

     

     

    AND he also turned down an offer from Arsenal to be their CEO around 2008,that would prove to me that he was a Celtic supporter.

     

     

    I know a lot of people moaned about PLs wages,well he started of earning £700.000 and it would increase every year because of the trohies and titles he won year after year,I know you’ll be saying HE increased his wages every year,but any increases must be passed at board level. so blame the board, not the person.

  11. bournesouprecipe on

    CQN…………Hibernian football club have refused to apologise for Irvine Welsh’s comments during the game on Wednesday .

     

     

    SFA award………………………..Penalty to Rainjurzzzzzz

  12. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on

    Oldtim

     

    Balderdash !!

     

     

    Hope you are well D, phone you over the weekend

  15. Celtic Mac on

    Meanwhile on another Planet

     

    (ie not this one)

     

     

    Peter Lawwell refused to pay the Rangers wee tax bill from HMRC in March 2011 from his Celtic bonus.

     

    Celtic FC were a Party to the 5 Way Agreement in 2012 (their part was written in invisible ink)

  20. pitymevin on

    Let’s get it straight,

     

     

    For how long have we been talking about going to play in the English league.

     

     

    At the time I said we should ask the fans If they would buy into a 5 year season ticket to get away from this cheating.

     

     

    I’ve also just caught up with the scott brown interview and by god Peter has been busy. He built the new training facility. NO THAT WAS THE SALE OF ONE OF OUR YOUNG STARS. mcgeady a new quality street kid , learning his trade from true professionals that MOn brought in.

     

     

    He won loads of titles.

     

    NO THAT WAS BECAUSE THE HUN WENT BUST. But he kept us afloat, that is the remit of any £million CEO at the very least and by the way only 2/3 clubs did go bust during that time out of 40.

     

     

    He invested a lot of his time in the club.

     

    YES AND TOOK £20 MILLION + FOR HIS TIME.

     

     

    I love SB, but in his last match he booted lenny right in the gubb by being sent off with a petulant flailing/ or international swipe at another professional. Is he now worried that the jobs for the boys culture might be up. Love the guy , but FFS Scott

  21. onenightinlisbon on

    The fact (is it) that Desmond wanted Pedro to stay is of great concern. Who picked the new guy? If it was desmond are we getting Pedro 2 son of Pedro?

  22. onenightinlisbon on

    PARKHEADCUMSALFORD on 29TH JANUARY 2021 6:21 PM

     

     

    Is there anything positive at the moment?

  23. mazzy on

    Down the years PhilMac, in particular, has provided Scottish sports journos with various steers and invited them to pick up the ball and investigate, which is the supposed role of inquisatorial operatives. But as Scottish football hacks are purely ornamental, talentless, and largely Sevco leaning, nothing happened.

     

     

    There is currently a huge story in Scotland coming at us faster than Kris Boyd’s wig in a storm. It relates to Salmond/the SNP and who did what and said what to whom at various times. Absolutely nothing on the Scottish news programmes. Is there a media blackout or is political pressure being applied to editors , or are Scottish political journalists just as inept as their football counterparts.

     

     

    Nothing remotely healthy about news output being overtly influenced by politicians or their lackeys, if that is indeed the case here. Or perhaps it’s just that political journos need to wake up and start doing their jobs , at least to the limits of their abilities.

  24. pitymevin on

    And oldtim the arsenal CEO only gets £600k a year the rest is performance related. Only FFS

     

     

    So a drop in wage, I think not.

  27. pitymevin on

    One,

     

     

    Yes plenty of positives, we can put all this guff behind us and move onto a new chapter in Celtic history.

     

     

    Only time will tell, but

     

     

    all we are saying is give the new guy a chance.

  29. Gene on

    Thanks for the good wishes – if anyone is thinking that they may have a problem then get it checked out.

  32. EKBhoy on

    Chaps

     

     

    If Celtic said Rangers were a new club then for the hard of thinking all the other clubs …. wait drumroll … would have said ‘ oh no their not ‘. we would have painted a target on our back …. don’t you follow Scottish football

     

     

    …. sweet Jesus H Christ …. big Peter’s inevitably dropped the ball a few times in a long career but if he’d listened to the trumpets on here it’s likely we’d have gone bust

     

     

    Good luck Peter , welcome new chap

  33. PeterLatchfordsBelly on

    The enduring lesson from the Peter Lawwell era?

     

     

    Don’t give a management accountant unchecked power to dominate your football club. It results in a culture where management accountant considerations drive everything, hopelessly diminished European stature and garbage cronyism that sees Gordon Strachan’s unqualified sons getting jobs for the boys in key positions.

     

     

    By the end a guy who believed Celtic belonged to him, putting up fences to keep the riff raff out etc. As if.

     

     

    Good riddance.

  34. ernie lynch on

    EKBHOY on 29TH JANUARY 2021 7:05 PM

     

    Chaps

     

     

     

     

     

     

    If Celtic said Rangers were a new club then for the hard of thinking all the other clubs …. wait drumroll … would have said ‘ oh no their not ‘. we would have painted a target on our back …. don’t you follow Scottish football

     

     

    ###

     

     

    Would they, aye?

  35. Clink\o/ 4x3 on

    Not the first time on here that I have heard that we only won all those titles because the huns went bust.

     

    The obvious question is, do you think they were tainted

  37. Gene on

    Good to see moreorless being charged – too late just like the DU game – should have been down to 10.

  40. excathedra44 on

    Dominic McKay worked for Scottish Rugby,he also has a ST for Celtic Park.

     

    Largs man.fan.

  41. ernie lynch on

    CLINK\O/ 4X3 on 29TH JANUARY 2021 7:11 PM

     

    Not the first time on here that I have heard that we only won all those titles because the huns went bust.

     

     

     

     

    The obvious question is, do you think they were tainted

     

     

    ###

     

    Jeez. Entitled much?

     

     

    Of course they’re not tainted.

     

     

    The huns have no God given right to exist.

     

     

    They overspent and went out of existence.

     

     

    That was their doing and their problem.

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