Behind every great manager... Lawwell deserves plaudits

YOU have to congratulate Brendan Rodgers and the Celtic players for their seventh straight domestic trophy, but sitting quietly in the background is a man who deserves a bit of recognition for that success too.

Peter Lawwell will never be without his critics. There is no chief executive at Celtic who will ever escape without someone complaining.

But the triumph at Hampden on Sunday afternoon was the 24th trophy that Lawwell has overseen in his tenure at the club and that is some going.

And while everyone at the club looks at Rodgers and hopes that he remains at the club for as long as possible, I have to say that I’d have the same feeling about Lawwell.

Well respected with top-flight European business circles and always with the best interests of Celtic at heart, I just think that the job he does at the club is repeatedly overlooked.

This summer in particular he bore the brunt of the frustrations of supporters in terms of signings at the club, criticism that I felt was unfair for a couple of reasons.

For one, the signing of Odsonne Edouard is a club record fee. And if you look at the money spent over the piece since he has been at the club, you’d be hard pressed to make a genuine argument that managers have not been

backed, back to Aberdeen. Who knows? But I just think that while Peter Lawwell does not kick a ball or pick the team, he has been as pivotal to the success of the club as anyone.

He is intelligent, has a sound business plan and more than that he is a Celtic man. What he does in terms of the decisions made have the best interests of the club at heart.

I think we could all see that there was tension there over the summer with Rodgers frustrated but it is has been sorted out. I think the relationship between Rodgers, Lawwell and Dermot Desmond is one that probably has its hiccups – as all relationships do – but ultimately it is one which has been hugely successful in terms of the running of the club.

The sheer longevity of his time at Celtic underlines what Lawwell has brought to the club.

Fergus McCann and Eric Riley were crucial in propelling the club forward in a financial sense but Lawwell has been a vital cog in the modern success of Celtic and I am not entirely sure that he gets the recognition for that which he deserves.

In my time, I had a decent relationship with Desmond White, whatever people may think. It was a different era and a different way of doing things but up until my final season I felt as though there was backing there from the board.

As we head into another transfer window, I am sure that there will be targets and I also suspect that the club will come out of the window stronger than when they went in.

That comes down to the manager and the chief executive working together and I think you will see that over the next couple of months.

There will be lessons learned from the summer window and if the AGM is anything to go by then I think we can be safe in the knowledge that everyone has the best interests of the club at heart.