Now we know who to blame- Sutton reacts to Mark Lawwell’s exit

Chris Sutton is sceptical over Celtic’s statement that Mark Lawwell resigned as Head of First Team Scouting and Recruitment.

On February 23 in the Interim Report Chairman Peter Lawwell expressed his frustrations over the recruitment carried out during the January transfer window.

A week later the club used the same Friday time slot to announce that the Head of Recruitment and his assistant Joe Dudgeon had gone on gardening leave after less than two years in the job.

Putting two and two together in the Daily Record Sutton gives his take on the departure of the Celtic Recruitment chief:

There were questions over who was to blame for January – and the window last summer. Now it looks like we have the answer. Celtic might say Mark Lawwell is leaving to pursue other opportunities but it looks like he’s fallen on his sword.

There was an inevitability about this after Peter Lawwell’s statement in the interim accounts.

The chairman said the clubs shared the frustration about the lack of signings in the window when Brendan Rodgers had said he needed four quality recruits. The big question was why – and who was to blame? I think we now know.

There should be a collective responsibility when it comes to transfers from the recruitment team to the manager. But clearly something wasn’t right – and it goes back to last summer.

You look at the players coming in. Some of them clearly have not been fancied and that has put the spotlight on the recruitment team.

The spotlight now at Celtic is what happens next.

It would be fair to assume that very little work has been put in place for the summer transfer window which has the huge variable over whether Champions League group stage income is guaranteed or only available through a tough qualifying route.

With virtually no comment coming out of the club it remains to be seen whether there will be direct replacements for Lawwell and Dudgeon or a new set up in place such as appointing a Director of Football to oversee Recruitment and all playing matters at the club.