If Mark Lawwell is distrusted by some of our fans, well there are plenty of reasons why. Football is a big business, in a big world, and there were other people who could have come in and did this job.
The temptation to suggest that it’s his name more than anything else which factored into his hiring is hard to shake off.
We have two Strachan’s on the books too.
Real doubts remain about those at the top of our club.
This is still the same board that hired Lennon, that screwed up the Howe pursuit and then hired Ange on what some of us still believe was a whim. A whim at the behest of Lawwell and Lawwell.
It worked out, sure. But it was a high-risk move, one that could have backfired in any number of ways. Their judgement is not sound. They work within a very small part of the bigger footballing universe.
They lack imagination and the ability to think outside the box.
But although this is all true, there are signs at this club that lessons, real lessons, hard lessons, have been learned and learned well. The club has moved on from the model which was in place under Lennon.
So much, in fact, has changed that I wonder.
The football department has been prised loose from interference at the hands of those who count the coffee beans. The CEO has been stripped of other powers as we now have what is, in effect, is a chief financial officer. Scouting has been rebuilt, but the manager is the guy whose judgement is trusted and valued above all else.
That is all to the good. That hints at better times ahead, and changes behind the scenes which are permanent. If things continue running as they are we’ll all be happy.
And in those circumstances, Mark Lawwell deserves the opportunity to show us what he can do.
He will be judged, therefore, on what he achieves in the job. Not on his name, and not – and this is important – not on any endorsement he has from Ange or from anyone else. People simply assuming that he’s going to be brilliant because Ange is comfortable working with him, I get it but that’s giving him credit before he’s earned it.
Ange might well built a good working relationship with him. All parties might well be happy with how it progresses. But ultimately, all these people will be judged on their successes. For the first time in a long time in the transfer market we’re hitting the bullseye with nearly every throw. If Lawwell coming in knocks us off course, we’ll know it quickly.
Right now, the mantra around Celtic should be “we’re moving forward. Let’s not do anything to screw that up.” All we have to do is keep on doing what we’re doing.
If Lawwell continues us down that path he’ll get all the plaudits that he deserves.
If his daddy comes back in, Ange will walk, lawell senior, can’t help but interfere in player recruitment.
I back this up 100%.
Sure he has the Lawwell name but that wasn’t the only reason he got the job. He got the job based, partly if not mostly, on the fact that he was employed by Man City for 10 years. What influence he had down there I am unsure of, obviously the job we got him was a promotion. But I see no signs that he’s not up to the task. If he is responsible for Saed Hakšabanovi? then give the man a payrise I say. There are still others to come to the fore – that Danish lad for example, Abildgaard. Not sure what he’s doing for Celtic if anything. But he was a loan deal anyway and we’ve got good options in defensive midfield.
It’s true that big household names are no guaranteed solution to success as history shows; Caeser, Hay, Macari, Brady, Burns. I suspect your disingenuous ‘on a whim’ comment is layered with lashings of bitterness still against the board and its previous Lennon selection, a big mistake. Move on and leave the bitterness and anger behind. We have something great going on, well for our recently earned level anyway.
I’m really happy with Ange, sure he’s made errors, but they are limited and not by his ambition. If you had your way we’d have ended up with Eddie Howe whose record as a manager simply was not great at all and I’ve absolutely no idea how Howe would have managed on a low budget (his time at Burnley may hold the answer). Not better than Ange I’d argue, in fact probably a lot lot worse. If that appointment was just a whim, I’d barter that it was still better than the so-called educated choice of Howe.
Not really sure what this article is about?
Don’t see the point of this article at all. SSMPM has got it spot on. In my opinion everything is going along nicely just now. The team is performing well, recruitment has been excellent and all at Celtic Park deserve credit for that including the CEO and Board.