Peter Lawwell gave Neil Lennon his support at today’s AGM, pointed to circumstances going against Celtic as the reason for the current position the club finds itself in and believes that the Ten-in-a-Row target can still be met.
And he pointed out that he’s as much of a Celtic supporter as the rest of u so has been hurting just as much amid the worst run of results in living memory and intense supporter pressure for changes to be made to the management team and also in the boardroom. The latter was dealt with via the earlier votes with unsurprisingly over 99% of all votes being in favour of re-electing the likes of Dermot Desmond, Tom Alison, Brian Wilson and Sharon Brown to the Celtic PLC Board.
On the recent poor form and the resulting protests the Celtic CEO had tis to say: “I was born a Celtic supporter and I’ll die a Celtic support. I get it and understand it. The support we’ve had over the summer has been inspiring, nothing short of remarkable, and we thank them sincerely and recognise the value they’ve added to this club.
Our duty is to do the right thing for Celtic and make the right decisions that will take us forward,” Lawwell added.
“We haven’t given up on the league and there’s circumstances that have put us in this position. We will do everything we can to go and get the league this year.”
And on the claim by unhappy supporters that Lawwell along with largest shareholder Dermot Desmond and manager Neil Lennon had “fallen asleep at the wheel”, the Celtic CEO was not prepared to accept that. “That’s not true. We’ve had incredible domestic success. We strengthened the squad knowing there was going to be a challenge this year to a level we haven’t done before,” Lawwell argued.
“We spent £35million from July 2019. We’ve never spent anything like that in the past. We’ve strengthened and kept our best players. That’s not complacency.
“We’ve invested the reserves into the team to make us stronger. We’ve a manager that’s delivered with his track record. We’re investing in football to take the club forward and in no way were we sitting back being complacent waiting on things happening.”
And on Neil Lennon, who has been the subject of intense pressure to leave the job particularly after the disastrous European campaign and the humiliating 8-2 double header defeat against Sparta Prague, the Celtic CEO continued to back the man he appointed in the showers at Hampden in May 2019.
“Neil’s credentials are there for everyone to see. He came back and probably had everything to lose and nothing much to win. He won the treble Treble, won the league cup, group section of the Europa League and nine-in-a-row. He’s now got a Scottish Cup final for a quadruple Treble. He’s got the trust of the players and backroom and we believe he’s the man to cut the deficit in this league and lead us to Ten-in-a-Row.”
CELTIC AGM SPECIAL…Resolution 11 voted down (97.18% to 2.82%), Bankier ‘satisfied’ despite Lawwell’s ‘5 Way Agreement’ claim
