It may have been a rocky couple of months for Celtic Football Club and Peter Lawwell in particular, but as the Celtic chief executive leaves his post after what is admittedly an incredibly successful seventeen year spell, it will be with a tinge of sadness to see him leave in the summer. Since Lawwell’s appointment in 2003, he has overseen 29 trophies; including thirteen league titles, a quadruple treble, unforgettable memories and signed some of the best players to grace the club in its recent history to boot. Great managers have come and gone, too – O’Neill, Lennon (twice) and Strachan are all credited with doing wonders at the club.
However, there is only one man who tops all of these in Lawwell’s spell: Brendan Rodgers. Not only did he embark on an invincible season, but the Northern Irishman brought on key young talents such as Moussa Dembele, Kristoffer Ajer, Olivier Ntcham and Odsonne Edouard – whilst also attracting big names such as Scotty Sinclair, who revolutionised Celtic in the league and, for the most part, on the continent.
And following tributes to Lawwell’s long tenure finally coming to a close, Rodgers has chipped in with his tuppence, praising Peter for the long-term longevity that he has afforded Celtic to have.
Speaking to the Glasgow Times,, Rodgers said: “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. 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 – it will be a sad day when he retires, but he will always be a Celtic supporter.”
“He’s done a fantastic job, but he will step aside and someone else will come on in and take on the mantra.”
What Rodgers says generally does bear a lot of truth; no matter how you may view it, the transfer dealings of Celtic have been immense over the past decade. Even prior to the signings mentioned in the Rodgers era, there were still Virgil van Dijk, Victor Wanyama and Aiden McGeady to help boost the coffers; and he oversaw the signings of Shunsuke Nakamura, Roy Keane and Robbie Keane in his spell as boss – these statement of intent signings kept the high-profile of Celtic intact which in essence paid dividends to the continued dominance of the club in Scottish football.
It may be hard to look at Lawwell in a positive light given the shenanigans of this season, but Rodgers sums it up; we are still in a very strong financial situation thanks in no small part to his financial and executive decisions, and with the trophy cabinet to show for it, we must be thanking Lawwell for his time at the club.
