He apparently stepped down as CEO at the end of June but its hard to shake off the feeling that Celtic are still working to the Peter Lawwell mantra.
Every season starts with Champions League qualifiers, every time Celtic are given a seeded route towards £30m plus and now for the sixth time in eight years they have failed to navigate their way towards that windfall.
Maribor, Malmo, AEK Athens, Cluj and Ferencvaros have been joined by Midtjylland as the fired up, motivated and organised minnows that have caused Celtic embarrassment on the European stage.
A year ago Lawwell watched Neil Lennon blame the players for a home defeat to Ferencvaros and decided to take no action. In December a managerial review was reluctantly ordered. Two months later it revealed support for Lennon who then walked away after his second defeat of the season to Ross County.
Between Lawwell, Ian Bankier and Dermot Desmond Celtic managed to take 106 days to appoint a manager with no experience of European football. He hasn’t been trusted to bring in an assistant with just Liel Abada added to last season’s squad for a crack at the Champions League.
Each year the rebuild gets bigger. After last night’s Champions League exit it was clear that the influence of the former CEO is still in the thoughts of many Celtic fans.
Instead of gutting the place we changed a manager, and hid lawwell in the background and that’s the boardroom idea of change and world class in everything we do.
— roy (@Airthreycastle3) July 28, 2021
Why did anyone think mckay would be different from lawwell? Lawwell kept his job for so long cos he done the job the board wanted him to do, so will mckay. Only way for for Celtic is fan ownership or continue to downsize into insignificance @TheCelticTrust
— HAZY (@Hazycfc) July 28, 2021
I’m not happy. I have repeatedly criticised Lawwell’s role in this fiasco. But it is Desmond & the board who ultimately sanctioned his employment to continue.
— Brian McNally (@McNallyMirror) July 29, 2021
Why did anyone think mckay would be different from lawwell? Lawwell kept his job for so long cos he done the job the board wanted him to do, so will mckay. Only way for for Celtic is fan ownership or continue to downsize into insignificance @TheCelticTrust
— HAZY (@Hazycfc) July 28, 2021
Lawwell still 100% running things .
— bhoysviews (@bhoysviews) July 28, 2021
Dom should stop listening to his mate Lawell and do things his way, or else this shambles will continue… on his watch.
— Mick (@mickde1967) July 28, 2021
Told you a last week ago , placing Lawwell on the Board worries me.
— Paul Cochrane ? (@mrdissent) July 28, 2021