‘Disappointing and never the intention’ Peter Lawwell reveals his frustration at Celtic’s Recruitment failings

Soon after Brendan Rodgers completed his Friday media conference Celtic announced their Interim Results to 31st December 2023.

Funds in the bank remained at a healthy £67.3m despite committing funds for capital expenditure on Lennoxtown, Barrowfield and Celtic Park.

At the end of June Celtic had £72m in the bank with supporters getting frustrated at the stockpiling of funds while the team fails to make any impact in Europe and is now struggling domestically.

Brendan Rodgers has repeatedly spoken about bringing in quality but none of the 12 players brought to the club this season, three on loan, have improved on the players already there or made a telling impact on matches.

Aware of the criticism, in the report from the London Stock Exchange, chairman Peter Lawwell explained:

The Board shares the frustrations of the supporters regarding the less than anticipated activity in the recent transfer window.

Since the opening of the transfer window in June 2023, and up to the end of the winter transfer window which closed on 1st February 2024, we have committed £23.9m in player investment. Within this we renewed and extended the contracts of Cameron Carter-Vickers, Liel Abada, Matt O’Riley, Anthony Ralston and Reo Hatate.

The Board’s commitment is to strengthen and improve the playing squad in every transfer window and although resources were available, we were unable to further add to the squad due to the unavailability of identified targets.

This was disappointing to us all, and never the intention. The January transfer window is notoriously difficult as clubs are very reluctant to let their best players go at such a crucial time of the season just as we are. Indeed, we resisted strong interest in our players from other clubs.

Despite sharing the transfer frustrations of the supporters it appears that no changes are being made to the club’s Recruitment Department which is led by Lawwell’s son Mark.

A big transition is expected in the summer, a goalkeeper is definitely required with Joe Hart announcing his retirement while there is expected to be renewed interest in Matt O’Riley after Atletico Madrid had an offer rejected last month.