Keith Jackson has warned Comical Pete that his astonishing downfall is self-inflicted.
During Lockdown an unlikely alliance was formed between the Celtic Chief Executive and Daily Record reporter who scooped the industry with the only newspaper interview of 2020 as Lawwell pleaded the case for Celtic Park to be open to fans for a test event in July. It never happened.
Banners have returned outside of Celtic Park with the CEO the target of criticism rather than the manager that he appointed and has stood behind.
When results went south in the autumn it looked like Neil Lennon would be the casualty. Keeping him on may have created a human shield to deflect from Lawwell but the Dubai fiasco belongs to the highest paid man in the history of the club just as he waves off the dream of 10-in-a-row that seemed so strong just six months ago.
Sending out statements and employees to defend the Dubai trip hasn’t helped the CEO, when his closest ally in the media spells out his failings with a jibe about Comical Pete things are reaching the point of no return.
In today’s Daily Record, Jackson spells it out, writing:
Celtic’s banner-daubing hardcore are now demanding regime change which is why the club’s domineering chief executive is being cruelly depicted as Comical Pete. The levels of vitriol here are ridiculously overcharged.
In truth, Lawwell has been quite masterful in overseeing two decades of historic success and domestic dominance. That won’t spare him any lashes now it’s all reaching an unsavoury, mean-spirited end.
Lawwell won’t want to hear it but this quite astonishing downfall has been created by an uncharacteristic level of incompetence which arrived on the scene around the same time as a virus and which is hanging about every bit as stubbornly.
Lawwell has found himself locked into drowning man syndrome as the on-field empire he worked so astutely to build has crashed down around his ears. Bouncing from one botched decision to the next, Lawwell’s legacy has been in danger of being obliterated in these past few error-strewn months, culminating in the disastrous idea of a warm-weather training camp in Dubai.
The miscalculation to go globe-trotting into the teeth of a pandemic saw Lennon locked up at home on Monday night, self isolating along with 13 first- team players as Hibs hammered yet another nail into the coffin of 10 in a row.
Celtic got exactly what they deserved from Jack Ross and his team, not least because of the unedifying levels of arrogance which were being displayed in the build-up to a 1-1 draw which has effectively expedited the inevitable. In the height of their disarray this is a club which appears to have been blinded by denial.
They are seemingly unable or unwilling to admit that those in charge of making the big decisions are almost entirely to blame for the almighty mess in which they now find themselves. On Monday afternoon, as the empire was crumbling around his ears, Lawwell signed off on a club statement which took the breath away in terms of its lack of self-awareness.
On December 7 Celtic committed to a managerial review in the new year.
‘Eye for a player, knows the city’
