Peter Lawwell has revealed that he doesn’t go online because he’d be dead if he reacted to social media!
Whether he likes the message or not social media and the digital age is essential for any business, especially one with global reach and literally millions of supporters/customers.
Celtic’s need for an online presence is obvious with the club signed up to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as well as running their own website, You Tube channel and subscription TV service.
Social media throws up a complete variety of opinions but a skilled CEO and Communications team will be able to pick up on trends and gather feelings among supporters.
Without doubt there is a snobbish element among the Celtic support who think that the club should have a more exotic manager than the guy that left in 2014 with mixed results since then in management.
Anyone with a background like Marvin Compper or Jeremy Toljan would have been more exciting than Lennon, they could have spouted the same buzzwords as Deila, Warburton and the other pretenders without ever getting a dressing room on board and achieving results on the park.
Lawwell appears to be getting his social media news second hand and using some extreme opinions to justify the handling of the current managers’ position.
Incredibly within an hour of Scott Brown raising the Scottish Cup the Celtic directors held a conversation with Lennon in the Hampden showers, without his agent being present, with Lawwell then hosting a media conference to announce that Lennon had been OFFERED the job.
Without a contract being signed Lennon is off to Spain today for a few days holiday, celebrating the 50th birthday of his agent, Martin Reilly.
“I’m not online, I? don’t go on it but honestly, I’ve said hundreds of times, you need blinkers in this job,” Lawwell told the Daily Record. “And if you react to online, or social media, or media, then you’re dead.
“You just need to keep on doing the right things and believe in yourself and making the right decisions. That’s what we’ve done, without any outside influences.
“It’s a fantastic job and I’m sure there would be people looking from afar who had an idea of coming here. We had approaches from many, many agents, many representatives of managers across the board. We put them in the file, just left it and kept our word to Neil, really.
“We had a mini board meeting right after the game. Dermot’s here. Dermot, myself, the chairman (Ian Bankier) and Tom Allison decided what to do.We knew that Lenny was getting the job. We decided that we should kill the speculation on a high, get it out and let our supporters know and the media know.”
Lennon is highly likely to retain the SPFL title next season, another treble is a genuine possibility but there are genuine concerns about how the club has handled this appointment.
It seems that no efforts were made to profile a new manager, all across the game rookie managers are emerging.
It would be utterly ridiculous to appoint Jim Goodwin as the Celtic manager, I’m smiling as I type this but managers have to start somewhere and get their chance.
Within three years Jack Ross has gone from Alloa to Sunderland via St Mirren. Yesterday wasn’t his greatest day, Ross isn’t ready to manage Celtic but Rafa Benitez, Davie Moyes and Jose Mourinho, even Alex Ferguson cut their teeth somewhere in management.
In the mid sixties Celtic appointed the guy that had been in charge of Dunfermline six months earlier.
As he waits on Lennon’s fresh demands for the job before he accepts the offer to manage Celtic perhaps a greater awareness and understanding of modern communications would be useful for Lawwell and his boardroom colleagues.
All successful, forward looking businesses in 2019 are very well aware of the digital noises surrounding their companies- and their competitors.