With absolutely no worthwhile basis many Celtic fans have been speculating over Peter Lawwell stepping down as Chief Executive.
The club CEO was appointed in 2003, growing his powerbase down the years with all significant appointments coming during his term in charge of the club.
With a turnover that until 2020 was twice the size of its biggest rivals Celtic have enjoyed great domestic success over the last few seasons with 11 consecutive domestic trophies won with a 12th a possibility by next week.
The domestic success has been thoroughly enjoyable but over the last seven years Celtic have under-performed in Europe.
Since a 6-1 defeat in the Nou Camp in December 2013 Celtic, despite being seeded, have been knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers by Malmo, Maribor, Cluj, AEK Athens and Ferencvaros. In terms of raw turnover reaching the group stage is now worth around £30m to Celtic.
Despite three successive failures to clinch that sort of revenue Lawwell still has the trust of the board, at today’s AGM Ian Bankier said:
Peter Lawwell stands out for me. He’s a natural decision maker. In terms of time, you never have any time. Everything is moving fast, and you need to make it right. Peter has an exceptional ability to do that. Everything he does, he does in the best interests of Celtic.
In terms of the future of the club, we continue to do what we’ve been doing for the last decade. We are the custodians of this great club. Short-term pressures have come on, but we have to think of the longer game.
In the Europa League this year Celtic have lost out to Copenhagen and Sparta Prague, Bankier was voted back onto the board with 99% plus backing at the AGM.
CLICK HERE to watch the AGM interviews.
If rumours are true then Lawwell is announcing at Mondays AGM that hes stepping down at end of season
— Martin Griffin ? (@mgriffin8622) December 12, 2020
To me it seems like a protest for the sake of having a protest, poorly timed & shld be postponed until we see how this week plays out, theres an AGM on Mon where its expected Lawwell will announce hes stepping down, theres a meeting between the Trust & the Club on Thur aswel
— Martin Griffin ? (@mgriffin8622) December 11, 2020
Hearing will be stepping down in the summer, announcement at AGM
— Celtic67 ????? (@cmonthehoops111) December 7, 2020
Lawwell is leaving at the end of season. So chill..
— ?? ??????? ?? (@Daedalianthony) December 13, 2020
Is Lawwell leaving for a job at Uefa at the end of the season?
— JC (@BxlfastBhoy) December 8, 2020