Trending
Celtic News Now
Celtic Quick News on News Now
Celtic Quick News
You are at:»»Mark Lawwell off as CFG process ends at Celtic

Mark Lawwell off as CFG process ends at Celtic

447
By on CQN BLOG & Comments

Mark Lawwell, Head of First Team Scouting and Recruitment, and Joe Dudgeon, Lead First Team Scout, both resigned yesterday to “pursue other opportunities”.  Mark joined from City Football Group (CFG) in May 2022, Joe followed from the same source six months later.

While at CFG, Lawwell was Head of Scouting and Recruitment, responsible for Manchester City, Girona, Ange Postecoglou’s Yokohama and others.  The pair worked together for three years at CFG, where Ange bought into Mark’s recruitment and development pathway. Mark then recommended Ange to Celtic.

After his successful first season at Celtic, Ange brought Mark up from Manchester to head Celtic’s recruitment.  Plans were cut short when Ange left for Tottenham before the pair set to work in the summer of 2023.

It was clear to many that Brendan Rodgers recruitment methodology was different from Ange’s, while Mark Lawwell’s also differed from Lee Congerton’s, who headed recruitment during Brendan’s first term at Celtic.  Lee had worked with Brendan early in their backroom careers at Chelsea and followed him to Leicester in 2019.

Both Lawwell and Congerton suffered some reputational damage among the support during their times at Celtic, although Head of Recruitment is only one piece of the jigsaw.  Congerton’s reputation in the game got him the top recruitment job at Atalanta in 2022.

After the work he did at CFG and his transformational time at Celtic through Postecoglou, Mark Lawwell also has significant standing in the game.  He will end up back in the English Premier League, where there is a bit of flux at the top end.

City and Chelsea are prodigious hoarders of talent, although he may prefer not to return to City and not be further contaminated by Chelsea.  Postecoglou moved for him before and could take him to Spurs.  I would keep an eye on Manchester United as a possible destination.  Their new controlling shareholder is known to respect the work of CFG and will make changes to the football and recruitment operation.

Liverpool are probably too focused on replacing Klopp than making any further senior changes.  There are lots of clubs keen to move up the food chain further down the EPL, who may also move for him.  Bookmark me if you think any other scenario is likely.  What happens next will be a measure of what walked out the door yesterday.

The January transfer window was described as “disappointing” by Mark’s father, chairman, Peter Lawwell, showing his aptitude for understatement.  The manager and recruitment department need to work to the same methodology or we end up with £67m in the bank and spending very little.  The frustration would have been palpable.

I think everyone had the best intentions when Brendan joined in the summer and committed to work with the existing recruitment system.  The manager must always have the final decision in transfers, but if we do not sign who the recruitment department wants us to sign, those at the top will soon move on.

I doubt we will be able to get Lee Congerton back.  Whether you want someone like Lee in to work with Brendan they way they did until 2019 doesn’t matter, it is important that we get someone who operates like that.  The manager needs a Head of Recruitment who works the way he does, not the way CFG do.  It may not be to your taste, but it’s surely better than rejecting everyone.  So nothing to worry about.

Click Here for Comments >
Share.

About Author

447 Comments
  1. Pages:
  3. 1
  4. ...
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12

  1. TheOriginalSadiesBhoy on

    MARKIEBHOY on 2ND MARCH 2024 5:26 PM

     

    Plenty on here upset by the result at Hunbrox?

     

     

    Away you go. You think frustration is supporting the Hun? A lot of people on here are angry that we are scrambling for a league title against a crap team because the board wouldn’t spend any money.

     

     

    ………………………

     

    Absolutely 100% nailed it in one Markiebhoy. Our fans accused of being entitled because they showed their disappointment after poor performances led to us dropping points after the window where the people responsible for getting four experienced players let us down badly.

     

     

    It is an absolute disgrace that the current Rangers team sit at the top of the table (temporary I hope) because of internal strife and politics. Fans being blamed for not getting behind the team when the Chairman doesn’t get behind and do everything in his power to support the manager. Particularly in a season when qualifying for the CL nets you £60m which would mean we leave them eating our dust but if they pull it off then it wipes out their debt and allows them to gain parity with us financially.

  2. jph on

    Ladiesbhoy

     

     

    What we often forget is the giant advantage they have with refs and var. Tmw will be another test. Colm last week was perfect example of tactical cheating. Decisions against us and for them are obvious every week.

     

     

    As posters pointed out too their mgr harassing refs assistant the whole game.

     

     

    Tyne castle a tuff place to go tmw, with their disgusting fans and nasty Naismith too.

     

     

    Hold on to your hats!

  4. fanadpatriot on

    Just logged in, a great day,but tomorrow still to come.

     

    Talking about scouting,Have. Look at this list .

     

    Kenny Millar

     

    derek Riordan

     

    Ian Murray

     

    Kevin Thomson

     

    ? Whittaker

     

    Scott Brown

     

    All the same age group,others later

     

    Good scouting and a manager giving them an opportunity

  8. GFTB on

    Fanadpatriot

     

     

    Fling in Caldwell, Griffiths, and Gary O’Connor

     

     

    No a bad group of players … am probably missing one or two

  9. TheOriginalSadiesBhoy on

    DUSHANBE BHILLY BHOY on 2ND MARCH 2024 6:37 PM

     

    AN TEARMANN on 2ND MARCH 2024 6:03 PM

     

     

    Reggie,your farting,you wrote

     

     

     

    ———

     

     

     

    “You’re”….. not “your”.

     

     

     

    Appalling English grammar.

     

     

     

    If Carlsberg did hypocrisy.

     

     

     

    P.S Please stop bulling Reggie.

     

     

    …………………….

     

    Lol. I stopped correcting other people’s spelling errors years and years ago. It is an absolute certainty that when you do so you will make one of your own. 🤣

  11. GFTB on

    Glendaly 11.14pm

     

     

    Agathe at times seemed to have no idea what he was doing with a ball … but a great signing

     

     

    Ajax away … outstanding and plenty of other great games .. the Bhoy had some energy … and never looked out of breath

  12. clunks on

    Lennon used to shout at agathe all game long

     

     

    Mcgeady took his place a few years later……

  13. fanadpatriot on

    GFTB

     

    Garry O’Connor same age group,Caldwell came back from Newcastle ,Griffths fro. Livingston but how Hibernian didn’t sign him is a mystery.

  14. garygillespieshamstring on

    McGeady had a few spats with his own guysin his time.

     

    WGS, Boruc, Lenny to name but three.

  15. GFTB on

    Clunks 11.22pm

     

     

    Listening to Si Ferry on open goal Lenny was on them all the time … later in life he says he now understands why … as you know I am a Neil Lennon fanatic :-)

     

     

    Hope I never meet him … people always say don’t meet your idols … although he’d still be behind the maestro .. Neil was a great Celtic servant but when it comes to actual football Paul McStay is my best ever 🍀

  18. glendalystonsils on

    Agathe was lightning fast , but unfortunately like lightning, you never knew when or where he would strike !

     

    Hibs fans gave him a hard time for defecting to us but , if memory serves me right , Hibs offered him a crap deal to resign , which he refused .

  19. clunks on

    GLENDALYSTONSILS on 2ND MARCH 2024 11:41 PM

     

     

    Agathe is much like maeda in that respect

  20. GFTB on

    Glendaly

     

     

    I think Hibs “stole” Agathe from Raith Rovers then Martin got him for £50k … probably due to his Hibs contract …

     

     

    A great signing

  22. Tontine Tim on

    GFTB on 2ND MARCH 2024 11:47 PM

     

     

    Glendaly I think Hibs “stole” Agathe from Raith Rovers then Martin got him for £50k … probably due to his Hibs contract …A great signing

     

     

    Hibs were playing him as a striker when we signed him, MON turned him into a marauding full back.

  25. glendalystonsils on

    CLUNKS

     

     

    Maeda reminds me of Agathe a lot , loads of pace but doesn’t always use it to good effect.

     

     

    GFTB

     

    Hibs penny pinching enabled us to nab Agathe on the cheap . Any time we played Hibs their fans gave him pelters but they should really have directed their anger towards their own board .

  29. GFTB on

    Tontine Tim 11.59pm

     

     

    Correct … Agathe had pace to burn …

     

     

    Probably the first “wing back” of the modern era

     

     

    (In my life time not yours mate :-)

  40. clunks on

    Mixtapes available at

     

     

    418isnotkevj@gmail.com

     

     

    We promise to reply to everyone that emails

     

     

    With a small video

     

     

    We can’t promise it won’t be racist, sexist or homophobic

     

     

    But we can promise it will be entertaining

  1. Pages:
  3. 1
  4. ...
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12