Peter Lawwell was back in the spotlight last night as Celtic toiled to a 0-0 draw at home to Kairat Almaty as a very familiar Champions League qualifying script was acted out.
While CEO of Celtic Lawwell oversaw exits to Maribor, Malmo, AEK Athens, Cluj and Ferencvaros. Three different managers but a common theme in the role of CEO, failing to have the team prepared to meet lower ranked and much lower resourced opponents.
Lawwell stepped down as CEO on June 30 2021, his handover to Dom McKay saw Celtic lose out to Midtjylland within a month, Liam Shaw and Osaze Urhoghide were unable to replicate their Sheffield Wednesday magic.
Despite that the new CEO forged ahead to provide the greatest transfer window in Celtic’s history.
Kyogo Furuhashi, Liel Abada, Carl Starfelt, Josip Juranovic, Joe Hart, Giorgos Giakoumakis, Jota and Cameron Carter-Vickers were all signed up, laying the groundwork for four consecutive titles.
Anyone who gives a damn about this club should be doing everything in their power to make their lives as physically and mentally uncomfortable as possible.
We forced a resignation from Lawwell once, turn up the heat and do it again !! pic.twitter.com/HdEBWJwNt6
— Liam (@Liam98__) August 20, 2025
Would Jamie Vardy be a good signing for Celtic?
YES- Get it done
NO A crazy idea
Nicholson and Lawwell have left the building pic.twitter.com/XxXeoyKMJI
— Tam sellic son (@TamseIIicsonIII) August 20, 2025
There were plenty of poor performances in the years we did qualify too, like Astana, Karagandy, Lincoln Red Imps, Hapoel Be’er Sheva etc.
I’m not saying we should qualify every year, but those years listed above were embarrassing and increasingly frustrating
— Hego67 ???? (@Hego67_) August 20, 2025
While Lawwell was out the door progress was made until his son Mark came in as Head of Scouting and Recruitment, appointed by Michael Nicholson into a job that he was wholly unqualified for. Peter was back as Chairman just 18 months after stepping down as CEO.
The quality of recruitment nose dived, over four windows only Alistair Johnston became an established first team player.
Now with a stand off over the position of the manager Celtic are heading into a perfect storm.
The club won’t sign players of the calibre required by the manager, Brendan Rodgers won’t use the project signings brought in by someone else within the club.
In February 2019 Rodgers was portrayed as the villain of the piece, that won’t be the case second time around.
I find it interesting that when Sevco struggle they blame the manager, team selection, tactics and the players efforts but at Celtic they blame the board and give the manager and players a free ride.
Celtic need a midfield yesterday, if not sooner, so in that respect the board are to blame.
It seems to me that Carter-Vickers and Scales are expected to create the play which is way above both their pay grades.
Sevco buy players for fun and win nowt so I would probably blame the mgr in those scenarios too.
Celtic sometimes buy sometimes don’t, make profit on transfers virtually every season whilst the mgr delivers silverware every season regardless, so yeah, I blame the board for allowing the squad to be stripped bare whilst simultaneously not strengthening.
Come on then Charlie, tell us all in what way the board have improved the quality of the product on show. The bank balance was pretty healthy before being topped up with CL money and sales of important players. We spent next to nothing of that, in fact we probably gave HMRC more than we spent on improving the squad. If you can explain the boards strategy then please let us all know.
You seem to be applying the first lesson a politician is taught and that is never answer the question you are asked but the one you want them to ask.
“Celtic need a midfield yesterday, if not sooner, so in that respect the board are to blame.”
Cannot make it any clearer. Read it again.
Editor: While everyone at Celtic has been appointed by Lawwell or his clone everything else is secondary.
“Celtic need a midfield yesterday, if not sooner, so in that respect the board are to blame.”
Pretty clear. Read it again.
Maybe lawell is only following instructions from the Irish billionaire parasite . Mcay got the bullet for maybe not following orders from the billionaire, so lawell was brought back in. He seems to be the scapegoat in all this. The Irish parasite owns 37%of the shares but had 100% control? This is the bam that needs to be driven out
You could be onto something there mickybhoy,that parasite has never once dipped into his own pocket to help the club but has trousered vast amounts of the fans hard earned money,the greedy bastard like all rich people the more they have the more they want and they don’t give one penny away.
As I stated before at the time, Dom McKay was the best thing that happened to Celtic. He was a breath of fresh air and extremely competent and able to communicate well..He already did a great job in the Rugby world, was well respected, knew the way forward and how it was to be achieved. However, pistol Pete and co were threatened by someone whose was so competent.
Unfortunately, the worst thing that has happened to Celtic is the Irish billionaire who uses Celtic as a plaything. Fergus warned us that we should NEVER EVER allow such a person to control Celtic. Now we have it and have allowed it to happen! He doesn’t even hold the majority of shares as MickeyBhoy points out. So why does he call the shots?
In my opinion, this guy does not care about the club. It is all about him and the wimps on the board lick his arse for their own benefit. None of them should be allowed near our club. We need rid of them all.
It was interesting that Fergus payed a visit recently and he made sure that he interacted clearly with the fans travelling to and from the game. He was sending a message I believe. We fans need an organised and consolidated action NOW, instead of being the wimps ourselves. We need a second ousting of the peepul (spelling intentional) and a re-setting with appropriate personnages at the helm.
I can only hope that something will emerge as I am sick of the parasites who run this old and famous club of ours which is slowly becoming the laughing stock of the football world.
Last line – first paragraph, should be “who” not “whose” – apologies.
I think the issue is the difference in the metrics that the Board and the fans use to measure success.
The Board measure success by money in the bank and trophies won while the fans measure success, not only by trophies won, but perceived opportunities missed.
There are other metrics:
Player trading model: One facet of this has been good in that the selling of our major assets however as we all know recruitment is shambolic at best. A raft of players have arrived in the last two years that have made little or no impact. These guys are now littering the first team squad, draining wages.
Fan Communication: The imposition of barriers within the ground with no prior notice highlights major failures in this area. Our media team also can’t seem to locate the Barrowfield development to give us an update even though it is only six hundred yards down the road. We are having to make do with rumours and drone footage from a third party. Simply not good enough.
Vision of the way forward: Answers on a postcard.
Youth development: we’re really good at developing players………… for other clubs. There seems no pathway to bring our youth into the first team.
Corporate greed and lawell gets a bigger reward the more cash in the bank will the fans and manager watch in horror at a movie we all have seen many times before, the board are Incompetent and only measure success domestically a 2 horse race with one horse knackered and they waste money In the bank with the only money as their ambition, stop giving them money
I did read it and did not agree. Midfield is probably our strongest area on the park. We lost two wingers , a striker and a left back. We replaced the left back with quality for free. The other positions ……. still waiting. I can get angry with poor playing performances and bad managerial tactics, but there are consequences for those culpable. Not so with our board and their performance
I wouldn’t say midfield is strong at all ,they are lightweight and powderpuff too easily dispossessed especially when playing the likes of sevco,we need an enforcer,and I’m beginning to think MC Gregor has seen better days ,he’s not as forceful or constructive as he used to be , maybe asked to play too much but our whole team needs strengthening,defence , midfield, up front,what was Idah bought for.the whole fuckin lot needs strengthened.