Mark Lawwell off as CFG process ends at Celtic

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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.

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447 Comments

  1. In Edinburgh this weekend for the match and just seen their score. I had absolutely no hope that they’d drop points today. Just fantastic.

     

     

    Tomorrow is still a massive game for us but going in 2 points behind is a helluva lot different than being 5 behind.

  2. GP and TT exactly the PL has been under tremendous pressure.

     

     

    Not making light of that.

     

     

    He will take some time with his family soon.

     

     

    D. :)

  3. AN TEARMANN on 2ND MARCH 2024 6:03 PM

     

     

    I don’t know if you’ve been drinking but I find it impossible to follow your posts.

     

     

    Enjoy your dinner 👍

  4. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    RC – that’s the spirit.

     

     

    Every silver lining has a cloud?

  5. Funny that Reggie

     

    Throw a slur when pinned

     

    Celtics achievement are reality.

     

    Mon

     

    Strachan

     

    9iar

     

    Nowt predicated on hun cheating or there presence.bollocks mate,only using your words..

  6. Just in.

     

    Unexpected (for me) bonus.

     

    Ball back in our court?

     

    A win tomorrow is massive

  7. It’s definitely been a tougher league for both Glasgow clubs.

     

     

    Some teams and coaches have lost any fear of Celtic and are willing to give it a go.

     

     

    Others have decided that parking the bus and keeping it scoreless for long enough will produce anxiety and errors.

     

     

    Anyone watching this league should realise that on a bad day for us, even Ross Co. & Livi can prevent us getting 3 points. Killie now expect to get something.

     

     

    The only way we can change this is to play better, if we can.

     

     

    We can’t benefit from parking the bus as it will give our opposition confidence so we have to match them from the start, make them feel as if they’re about to lose a goal, and then score a few. If Calmac is out, I would expect

     

     

    Hart

     

     

    Johnston CCV Scales Taylor

     

     

    Iwata

     

     

    O’Riley Bernardo

     

     

    Yang Idah Maeda

     

     

    Kyogo to come on and put the game to bed. Also hope Kuhn has seen that to start of his Celtic career, more energy and effort is needed. Let him play his way into this team- no matter what he cost.

  8. I cannot understand it. Sevco had such a fantastic transfer window. They don’t have the Lawells on board. I really just don’t get it.

  9. DUSHANBE BHILLY BHOY on

    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.

  10. AN TEARMANN on 2ND MARCH 2024 6:24 PM

     

     

    Pinned? Don’t be ridiculous.

     

     

    You called me a hun for having a different opinion to you. You’ll get the same respect afforded to your echo chamber. Absolutely none. Much of your posts are incoherent jibberish. That’s entirely on you.

     

     

    What has Peter Lawwell got to do with Martin O’Neill?

     

    Strachan fair enough his appointment.

     

     

    I see you don’t answer any questions you don’t like the answer to. So answer this one or I’ll stop answering yours.

     

     

    Would it have been a monumental, historic humiliation if we had lost the league title to Motherwell in 2012/13 or 2013/14?

  11. Bhoyjoebelfast on

    ●● Three to tackle●● European games related●●

     

    1)Willie Wallace scored a hat trick in 1970 v Waterford.We had to wait a further 10 years for another Celtic euro hat trick.Who was the scorer against Hungarian side Diosgyoeri Miskoic?

     

    2)Who is the first Celtic player to score in an European fixture (75/76) against a club from his native country?

     

    3) Two players, later to become Celtic managers faced the Hoops in European action?

     

    Three points tomorrow please.

  12. Melvin Udall on

    CLUNKS on 2ND MARCH 2024 5:34 PM

     

    Rangers vs Motherwell 1-2 Extended Highlights & Goals

     

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP98i87_EN0

     

     

    Enjoy, with beer…..

     

    —————

     

    Cheers for that Clunks.

     

    Great viewing! 😂👍

     

     

    The hun tv commentator when Tavpen scores “he’s got ice in his veins’”

     

     

    Aye, that must be how he can’t track his man at the back post for the Well winner. 😂😂😂

  13. MELVIN UDALL on 2ND MARCH 2024 6:55 PM

     

     

    I liked the commentator’s desperation when he claims handball for their winner 😂😂😂

  14. What is the Starz on

    I know we are celebrating…but having been out all day I just read the Article…Its absolutely crazy fantasy stuff..Enough Paul enough. We get it,you are pals with the Lawwell family and they are nice people and Brendan is a clown and a chancer..

     

    Ok

  15. Melvin Udall on

    GEEBEE1978 on 2ND MARCH 2024 7:04 PM

     

    MELVIN UDALL on 2ND MARCH 2024 6:55 PM

     

     

    I liked the commentator’s desperation when he claims handball for their winner 😂😂😂

     

    —————

     

    Aye, that too. Desperado!

  16. I banned him by mistake when I got abuse in my email and mistook it for him

     

     

    Apologised both by email and on the blog but he spat the dummy never to return

  17. MELVIN UDALL on 2ND MARCH 2024 6:55 PM

     

    CLUNKS on 2ND MARCH 2024 5:34 PM

     

     

    Great viewing! 😂👍The hun tv commentator when Tavpen scores “he’s got ice in his veins’”

     

     

    *nearly stuck it over the bar tae

  18. The Blogger Formerly Known As GM on

    Scully, love your stuff, but don’t use Sevco as the benchmark 👍

  19. Thanks clunks –

     

     

    they didn’t look good – I don’t see how their penalty was worth a VAR watch and killie’s claim wasn’t during the week

  20. Prawn tandoori ordered wine open a nice wee evening here in G74.

     

     

    🌙 🍛 🍷

  21. asked my dad about the penalty as I was out and about

     

     

    “never a penalty was his response”

     

     

    After watching it, I have to agree

  22. DAVID66 on 2ND MARCH 2024 5:49 PM

     

     

    Big Gas Meter wants out to. I was speaking to him and Mark the other week and both said the pressure was too great for them. Like Mark I hope Big Pedro gets his wish. Timing and all that.

     

     

    *well that indicates tae me that DD thinks his work in Europe had now been completed