It was February 2013 when Peter Lawwell had his Harold MacMillan moment and told the Celtic support that they’d never had it so good.
Racing towards a second successive SPL title win Celtic were about to face Juventus in the last 16 of the Champions League. Having beaten Barcelona four months earlier and taken 10 points from the group phase there was grounds for optimism going into the match.
From the ashes of Tony Mowbray Neil Lennon had put together an impressive young squad. By selling Aiden McGeady for £10m the club were able to bring in Gary Hooper, Joe Ledley, Emilio Izaguirre, Fraser Forster and Victor Wanyama.
Celtic Park was the favoured arena of European broadcasters, in comparison to the dull backdrop for most Champions League group matches it was a temple of passion, colour and as the Barcelona match has demonstrated high drama.
Looking forward to combined earnings of £1,649,529 for the year Lawwell told Celtic fans: “It has been a great effort from everyone and I don’t think we have been as healthy in decades, if we ever have been.
“Going back to last summer and before that when I said we can work on a stand-alone basis we can. We are agile enough, whether we have the Champions League or not, or the Europa League or not. We’ve demonstrated that in the past. We have our own business plan and our own strategy.
“Neil Lennon and the players have been magnificent. We are not complacent, but we have good stability and a foundation to take the club forward for years.
“If we did not get into the Champions League, then look at the value we have in the squad but we are in the Champions League so we don’t need to do anything with the squad, we can keep our big players.
“Celtic are in great shape — and nowhere in these figures is the valuation of the squad.”
Peter Lawwell’s income from Celtic
Eighteen months later, after losing to Maribor in the final qualifying round of the Champions League, the tone had changed dramatically.
Expanding on his stand alone policy Lawwell said: “The lost money which Rangers, and now Hearts and Hibs, have taken out of the game, has been made up from profit from selling players.
“Our revenues have stayed the same from selling players to make up for those lost millions but when Rangers went down we took £100 off season tickets. So that is £4m for two years. The Rangers games, at least another £3m.
“Then there’s a perception among our supporters that there is no competition, you are going to win anyway and you don’t go to the game. So it could be £10m.
“We could have lost £10m a year, quite easily, on the back of Rangers going down. How we have coped with that is seeing that ahead and keeping that strategy of being successful on the park, stable off it. Hearts and Rangers have gone bust and yet we are still getting it.”
With the club falling silent after yesterday’s Scottish Cup semi-final defeat customers are waiting to hear from the chief executive with the season ticket renewal campaign soon to be launched.
