Lawwell’s Departure Is Direct Result Of Rangers Boss Gerrard’s Success

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STEVEN GERRARD won his first trophy on Friday without kicking a ball.

 

By taking the head of Peter Lawwell, he’s taken down Scottish football’s biggest beast.

 

Be in no doubt, Lawwell’s departure is a direct result of Gerrard’s success. This isn’t how the Celtic powerbroker would have scripted it.

 

He was meant to be carried down London Road in a Sedan chair, The Ten in his pocket, legacy secure.

Instead, he’s leaving behind a club in turmoil.

 

Gerrard should leave some room on his mantelpiece.

 

Neil Lennon and his backroom team will be next out the door followed by head of recruitment Nicky Hammond.

 

Hopefully, anonymous chairman Ian Bankier will do the decent thing as well. The club needs gutted from top to bottom.

 

This season was an accident waiting to happen. All it took was for Rangers to put a proper team on the pitch and Gerrard has done that.

 

Hoops punters, seduced by the worthless pursuit of The Ten, are now confronting an inconvenient truth.

 

An opportunity to dominate Rangers and the rest of Scottish football for years has been blown.

 

I’m not writing this with the benefit of hindsight. This column blew the whistle on the Celtic Park boardroom years ago.

 

From the prestige of contesting the Uefa Cup final in 2003, the club is now irrelevant in European competition. Unforgiveable.

 

Europe is the only yardstick against which Celtic should be measured, not by stacking up domestic trophies against poor opposition.

 

Lawwell inherited a serious football club 17 years ago. In Martin O’Neill, he had a proper manager in charge of a top group of players.

 

Seville didn’t happen by accident. Celts got there because they paid top dollar for top players. But then something changed.

Thanks to the brilliant eye of chief scout John Park, Celts became a shop window. The buy low, sell high routine worked well for a while.

 

Virgil van Dijk, Victor Wanyama, Ki Sung Yueng and Moussa Dembele were just a few of those who made Celts millions.

It allowed the board to parade the annual balance sheet like the European Cup.

 

The AGM became a backslapping convention where awkward questions were treated with contempt.

 

Rangers’ liquidation allowed Celts to hoover up more titles and more cash. They had a free pass to Champions League millions every season.

 

No Celtic board in history ever had it so good. Yet somehow they’ve allowed Rangers up off the floor. The buck stops with Lawwell.

 

Despite fawning media coverage, his legacy is not a pretty sight. For starters, his announcement leaves Lennon twisting in the wind.

 

Lenny deserves better than to find himself warming the seat. With the title now gone he should be paid up now.

Unlike some in his dressing room, Lennon can look himself in the mirror.

 

He’s been done in by his own players and some brutal recruitment. He’s never had the leverage to push back against his board.

 

As for his successor? This is where Dermot Desmond comes in. Celts’ best managerial appointments have come through Desmond’s involvement.

 

The Irish billionaire overruled the board in 2000 to appoint O’Neill, brought in Gordon Strachan and went the extra yard for Brendan Rodgers.

 

Can he pull another rabbit from the hat? Problem is, the landscape has changed.

 

Having serviced a £50million wage bill during the Covid crisis, do Celts have the cash for a rebuild?

 

Who’ll fancy the gig by the time Odsonne Edouard, Kris Ajer, Ryan Christie and Olivier Ntcham have left the building?

Who’s to say Rodgers won’t come back in for Callum McGregor?

 

Against that backdrop, Desmond needs to find a time-served operator. No more Ronny Deila types wearing L-plates.

The new guy must be allowed to pick his own backroom team without interference.

 

That will require Lawwell’s replacement Dominic McKay to butt out of dressing-room issues. McKay has a vacuum to fill.

With Lawwell, goes the power and influence Celtic enjoyed during his time in charge.

 

His involvement with the SFA, SPFL and European Club Association ensured Celts were never dumped on.

He negotiated football’s corridors of power effortlessly.

 

Celtic shareholders will feel he goes amply rewarded. That eye- watering wage package will see his pension well topped up.

Fair to say Peter took as much from Celtic as the club took out of him.

 

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