It was all Ange’s fault! Keith Jackson’s inside view on Celtic recruitment as he absolves Lawwell & Son from disastrous deals
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
Keith Jackson has put the blame for Celtic’s disastrous summer signings on Ange Postecoglou!
The Daily Record reporter has launched a fierce defence of Peter and Mark Lawwell as anger among Celtic fans turns to the club Chairman with his hopeless son now in charge of recruitment.
Peter’s last two newspaper interviews were both with Jackson. In June 2020 he told his friend about plans to have supporters watching test matches inside Celtic Park, no fans attended matches until July 2021.
After hearing of the death of Walter Smith, Lawwell turned to their mutual friend to express his grief.
There has been virtually no comment from Celtic since Saturday’s defeat from Hearts with SACK THE BOARD and a chant aimed at both Lawwell’s emerged in the last 15 minutes of the match. Chairman Peter didn’t attend the match.
Now in a bid to absolve Senior and Mini from blame Jackson has claimed that the manager that brought Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate, Matt O’Riley, Josip Juranovic, Giorgos Giakoumakis, Carl Starfelt, Jota and Cameron Carter-Vickers to Celtic was the driving force that lumbered Brendan Rodgers with Tilio, Holm, Yang, Kwon, Lagerbielke, Nawrocki and Palma!
Sharing his thoughts with Daily Record readers, Jackson gives his insight into the disastrous summer recruitment:
Rodgers took a back seat in the summer at a time when Lawwell’s son Mark was heading up a £20million recruitment drive. The new manager may technically have rubber-stamped many or even all of those signings but these ‘projects’ were not his idea.
Instead there was a period of overlap between Postecoglou’s sudden departure and Rodgers’ return. Celtic had to get on with business during those weeks and it feels safe to assume the former boss had a hand in putting those plans in place.
Postecoglou’s working relationship with Lawwell Jnr, after all, had been long established.
At Celtic’s recent agm current chief executive Michael Nicholson revealed the Aussie personally handpicked the young Lawwell for the position, an endorsement made on the back of their time together at the City Group.
It was this relationship that first brought Postecoglou to the attention of Lawwell Snr when Eddie Howe was humming and hawing over the prospect of diving into Glasgow’s goldfish bowl. So suggestions of nepotism don’t hold much water even if there are some Celtic fans who have decided otherwise.
Incredibly, despite trying to take John Kennedy and Gavin Strachan to Spurs Postecoglou was happy to get on with the job without Lawwell Mini.
When Eddie Howe resigned from Bournemouth in August 2020 he announced that he was taking a year out of football, he was never in contention to replace Neil Lennon although it was a comforting story to hold onto with no one in Europe prepared to go near the shambles created by the outgoing CEO.
Mark had no experience of transfer dealing in his minor background role on the City Football Group website with no information available about what job when he was doing prior to joining the CFG.
His claim on Linkedin that he was Head of Recruitment and Scouting at the CFG from 2012 isn’t correct. There isn’t a shred of evidence to suggest that he had such a senior title or involvement in any transfers at Yokohama F Marinos.
It is unlikely that Postecoglou will be over bothered by events at Celtic but his legacy is being tarnished by the claim that he insisted on the appointment of Lawwell Mini and was the driving force behind possibly the worst transfer window ever, certainly since January 2019 when the then CEO signed up Burke, Bayo, Shved, Guttman, Perez and Toljan with only Timo Weah making any sort of positive contribution.
Should Peter and Mark Lawwell be removed from their jobs?
