Michael Nicholson washes his hands of Mark Lawwell
Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Kilmarnock v Celtic - Rugby Park, Kilmarnock, Scotland, Britain - April 16, 2023 Celtic non-executive Chairman Peter Lawwell in the stands before the match REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
Michael Nicholson has washed his hands over the appointment of Mark Lawwell as Celtic’s Head of First Team Recruitment and Scouting.
It seems that the club has been left in the lurch by the big, bad Australian that ran away and strangely didn’t want to take Lawwell Jr with him to Spurs.
In May 2022 the Celtic website broke the news:
Celtic Football Club is pleased to announce the appointment of Mark Lawwell as Head of First Team Scouting and Recruitment.
Mark joins Celtic from his position as Head of CFG Scouting and Recruitment, within City Football Group’s global structure, having spent the last 10 years there.
There is no evidence of Lawwell having such a senior job in the City Football Group, there is no mention of him on the CFG website and no mention of where he was employed before landing such a prime job. According to his Linkedin profile Mark was actually working for Manchester City.
Tuning in from the back of the room was Daily Record blogger Ben Banks who reported:
But McHugh’s not done there.
He asks why the chairman’s son mark is head of recruitment.
Nicholson replies that it was Ange who advised Mark Lawwell to take on the role. Only man Ange wanted was Lawwell and Nicholson asks Joe if he’d like to ask Ange about that…
So the CEO of Celtic allowed a manager 10 months in the job, on a 12 month rolling contract to appoint the son of the club’s former CEO to a critical job.
No recruitment process was involved, mirroring the notorious Hampden Showers deal of May 2019, no other candidates considered.
Since taking up the job Lawwell Jr has signed up one player, Alistair Johnston that was first team ready.
The others all fit the project profile. Luis Palma looks a player but isn’t an upgrade on last season’s wingers, Yang HHyun-Jun has some skills but Marco Tilio and Kwon Hyeok-kyu look unlikely to ever start a serious match as Celtic players.
All of the projects are sitting on four and five year contracts, moving them on will be much tougher than enticing them in from the Korean Second Division.
Mark Lawwell question https://t.co/rNcGbvRfm1
— Celtic365 (@videocelts) November 22, 2023
2016 Lawwell Mini is ‘scouting and information content manager at City’.