Our commitment is that every penny that comes into the club will be reinvested, it will go back into the club- Lawwell’s classic comment comes back to haunt

Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Celtic v Livingston - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - December 21, 2022 Celtic fans inside the stadium before the match REUTERS/Russell Cheyne

As Celtic prepare to announce that their 31 December bank balance was around the £100m mark there is one interview online that Peter Lawwell may want to get zapped by Google.

Soon after the entirely predictable home defeat from Maribor in August 2014 the Celtic CEO turned to one of his favourite outlets to explain the plans of the club.

The interview was presented in a Question and Answer format which suggests that it was all set up to portray the club and their highest paid employee in the most favourable light.

It was a favoured tactic by Lawwell at the time, he still enjoyed the backing of the vast majority of supporters, dining off his revelation about turning down an offer for Gary Hooper from an unknown club on an unknown planet in the build up to the administration and liquidation of Rangers.

With a succession of fly by nights in charge of the Ibrox Tribute Act playing in The Championship Lawwell was the biggest figure in the Scottish game and living off the fact that Celtic hadn’t been anywhere near administration and death.

Stephen McGowan was ‘firing’ the questions in the Daily Mail with one stand out answer being very topical as Lawwell prepares to bask in the rainy day fund of £100m sitting in the bank before his son’s fourth disastrous transfer window handed the SPFL title momentum over to Philippe Clement:

McGowan: You’ve been accused across the board of a lack of investment in new players?

Lawwell: The push for spend, spend, spend is just too simple, too superficial. You need to be cleverer especially in Scottish football environment.

That is one thing that is coming through is that there needs to be a bit more understanding or realism about what the Scottish football environment is and where we are in a club in that. It is tough and there are real challenges.

In terms of investment our policy our commitment is that every penny that comes into the club will be reinvested, it will go back into the club. I do not think we can be clearer than that. There is no pile of cash sitting there that we could look at, watch, feel and touch. It doesn’t exist. It is fantasy.

We have a wee bit of cash reserve, which gives us stability, and we have money we can invest on the right players. We can do it at the right time and we have a track record of doing that.

New manager Ronny Deila was given funds for the right player to sign Stefan Scepovic as his only permanent summer signing. After speaking out against loan signings the new boss was handed Bobby Wakasu, John Guidetti, Jo Inge-Berget, Dedryk Boyata and Aleksandar Tonev.

In his final match as Celtic manager Deila had Carlton Cole, Nadir Ciftci and Colin Kazi Richards at the club with the goals of Leigh Griffiths and the emergence of Kieran Tierney carrying the team to the title after embarrassing semi-final defeats in both cup competitions at Hampden.

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