“He’s been brilliant to work with,” Neil Lennon said at today’s Mainstream Media Conference from Lennoxtown that was dominated, as you would expect, with one story, the news that broke first thing this morning that Peter Lawwell is to retire from his position as the Celtic CEO on 30 June after 17 years leading the club.
“We’ve had our fall-outs over the piece but he’s been a huge positive influence on my career and many others,” Lennon added. There was no news at all on his own position at the club and whether it would be strengthen, weakened or unaffected by the decision of the CEO to call time himself on his reign in the top job. You got the feeling that the journalists from the MSM were a little too scared to ask and no-one from the Celtic fans media was invited to participate. Maybe that will change under Dominic McKay who has a background in communications.
Photo ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP via Getty Images
“He’s a huge loss. Every decision he made he thought was best for the club. He was devoted to the club and I think he’ll be a huge miss,” Lennon added. “I was still playing when he came back. Player, coach, manager, we’ve been through a lot together, as well as other managers like Ronnie, Tony and Brendan.
“The success the club has had during his reign is absolutely phenomenal.
“I’m sad to see him go but 17 years is a huge amount of time for a job as pressured as that. I can’t speak for fans and how they perceive other people’s record at the club. What I do know is that in a very highly-pressurised job he fought a lot of battles for the club, won a lot of battles for the club. On and off the field we’ve made enormous strides in the last 17 years.
“He knew he had to make decisions that wouldn’t be popular but the overriding theory behind it was that it was the best thing for the club at all times.
“There’s no question for me that he always put the club first, whether it be popular with people or not. That’s the strength of the man. A strong leader and a very good presence and influence for everyone around the club.”
Asked to name Lawwell’s main achievements in his role at CEO at Celtic, Lennon found that an easy task to accomplish. “You’ve got three Champions League last 16s, 13 league titles, a quadruple treble, wins over Barcelona, Manchester United, Lazio.
“You’ve got Van Dijk, Forster, Wanyama, Tierney, Dembele, all these players who’ve come in and enhanced the club on the field and then left for vast amounts of money. Only in the last couple of days we’ve taken a young player from Manchester City and sold him for a huge amount of money.
“It’s phenomenal the work that he’s put in at the club. You look around the stadium and the walkways and it’s beautiful. It’s in magnificent condition.
“Dominic has big shoes to fill. I’ve seen the club in worse straits than it is now.”
Watch Neil Lennon’s Fan-free Mainstream Media Conference from earlier today below…
