The restructuring goes on behind the scenes, even as we’re trying to carry on with playing football.
One of the men actively involved in this restructuring operation is trying desperately to leave behind a legacy that exonerates him from a share of the blame for this disastrous campaign, but the very fact of the restructure, and that it’s so large, damns him.
The manager has already fallen on the sword. Mutually consented is the modern phraseology.
He was Lawwell’s choice, the man the CEO went on the record to tell us was the only person they ever really considered. Some say that’s an exaggeration; too bad, it was Lawwell himself who put it in the public domain and he must have known it could blow back on him.
But the manager is not the only issue here.
Look at the state of the squad, and the momentous job of rebuilding it which has to be done in the coming window. That’s the fault of everyone at the club who was involved in the recruitment process, and like it or not a lot of these guys were brought in by the current CEO in the last major reconstruction.
That last major reconstruction was barely a year ago.
For the club to be undergoing another, and with Nick Hammond and Gary Prentice – both recent appointments – to be on the brink of leaving is a sure sign that the changes we have coming up haven’t been long planned at all, although this is what has been alleged by the club itself.
Because if they were then it was absolutely pointless putting those guys in post if it wasn’t going to last.
The weird thing of it is that I can easily believe both possible versions of this.
I can believe that Lawwell put a structure in place that he knew might be dismantled quickly and I can just as easily believe that there has been a dramatic rethink of the club structure due to the events we’ve witnessed in the last few months; as far as I’m concerned, if the latter is true then it seems apparent that someone above Lawwell has taken the decision to dismantle his work.
That, in and of itself, would be a pretty extraordinary thing to happen, but either way the question has to be asked as to what role Lawwell is playing in tidying up his own godawful and epic mess and what part of this has been auctioned off to Dominic McKay already.
We know he is involved in some of the decision making; this restructure is clearly partly his idea.
Lawwell is still playing a role at Celtic Park, and probably a big one.
But the colossal mess he has made and not just in hiring Lennon but in the whole structure which he oversaw to “assist” the management team should preclude him from doing so.
Neil Lennon’s performance was disastrous this season, but it was no less disastrous than that of the man above him, who has completely torpedoed his own legacy.
By the time Lawwell leaves this club not a stick of the structure he built with this campaign in mind will be standing; his management team will have gone, the support network he oversaw will have been swept aside, and his replacement will be working to undo even more of his “legacy.”
What a shocking state his “leadership” has gotten us into here, and the most astounding thing of it is that he has left with some folk still pouring honey in his ear and probably a nice fat pension pot courtesy of the season ticket holders.
His performance in the last year has been catastrophic.
In my view he should have left with nothing but a boardroom boot on his arse.
In any other corporate culture this man would have been fired for this car-crash campaign.
[snack-countdown title=”Celtic’s Countdown To Champions League Disaster” date=”06/20/2021″ time=”00:00:00″ colour=”#000″ textColour=”#FFF”]