RODGERS CAN BE OUR STEIN
Brendan has totally sparked Celtic back into life just like Jock did, insists Lawwell
IT was the best of birthday presents. The boy from Eastwood on the south side was taken along to Celtic Park to watch the returning Lisbon Lions in 1967. An eighth birthday beckoned the next day. The celebrations started early.
‘I was there with my family,’ says Peter Lawwell, now preparing for a 58th birthday which holds the promise of a possible Treble and the certainty of a club invincible in the present and eager for the future.
Lawwell, as ever, is prepared for the questions that a chief executive of Celtic must face. He is ebullient about Brendan Rogers, his marquee signing. He is convinced about the potential of his football club, particularly if the geographical constraints are loosened. He is discreet but encouraging to fans about spending.
‘We could be the best and biggest in the world,’ he says. ‘Everything is already here: the infrastructure, the narrative of a special club, the worldwide supporter-base and the financial knowhow.’
The club is ‘poised’ for any change in the commercial and playing landscape.
It is also far into the process of preparing for next season, with targets and those surplus to requirements already identified.
Any enquiries about the future of, say, Moussa Dembele or Kieran Tierney, are met with the blunt observation: ‘We do not need to sell.’ Any query about the precise level of investment in the squad is answered with the assertion that ‘Brendan will be fully supported within our obvious financial constraints.’
These, of course, are headline comments, but the more significant story lies in Lawwell’s inclination to reflect on the past while planning the future.
The almost eight-year-old Bhoy can now sit in an office off the boardroom at Celtic Park and peer down a Celtic Way that includes three substantial memorials to the day in Lisbon in the statues of Jock Stein, Jimmy Johnstone and Billy McNeill.
However, Brother Walfrid, the founder of the club, is also immortalised in sculpture and the chief executive, normally immersed in the imperatives of the present, seems determined that this sunny May morning is the moment to celebrate a Celtic past that consumes him professionally and privately.
‘There are two seminal moments in the history of this club,’ he says. ‘There is the foundation story of a club that comes into being for the best of reasons: to help the poor. We thus have values, standards and a community identity.
‘This is a club that espouses hope, charity and aspiration. This is a club that is open to all, where inclusion is not just an aim, but a reality.’
And this brings him to the second greatest moment in the club.
‘The Lions were the very embodiment of our values. They were the best team this club ever had, but they were humble — and they remain humble. There was a community in 1967 who felt the Lions by their actions made them proud. It is a remarkable legacy.’
It is one he is determined to take into the future.
‘This club has endured its highs and lows, its tragedies and its triumphs, but I would say this club is in an excellent place on and off the pitch.’
He adds of the Celtic FC Foundation, the charitable wing of the club: ‘It has never done so much, so well.’
HE is aware, though, that the front-page news of a club reflects matters on the pitch. He praises his manager, dismissing any perceptions that his role as chief executive has been diminished by the recruitment of such a powerful coach.
‘The first thing to say is that Brendan is a pleasure to work with. We have the same priority and the same aims. We both have been in football for a long time and we understand each other. He is an outstanding manager, but also a man of substance.’
Lawwell points out that a coach of Rodgers’ standing does not fall into a club’s lap. There has to be a plan, there has to be resources.
‘If you are looking at Brendan as manager, then there has to be the finance to bring that to fruition and that is not just paying his salary. This club has been run sensibly, so there is money to pay a top manager and there are resources to help him achieve what he wants to achieve.
‘Much of this was already in place before Brendan arrived. But he has been the spark. He has energised the club. He has been our Jock Stein.’
This brings the conversation back to the past when Stein inherited what was perceived to be a feckless, underachieving squad and, within two years, with only the addition of Joe McBride and Willie Wallace, won the European Cup, with the former missing the final through injury.
Regularly this season, Rodgers has selected from a Ronny Deila squad strengthened only by Scott Sinclair or Dembele, sometimes both.
‘Brendan gets Celtic. He is a supporter, so he buys into everything we are doing. But, as a coach, he is a marvellous developer of players,’ says Lawwell.
It is remarkable at the start of the season that only Nir Bitton was considered a viable sale to the English Premier League. Now, Craig Gordon, Tierney, Stuart Armstrong, Callum McGregor, Jozo Simunovic, James Forrest, Dembele and Sinclair would all attract interest from the richest league in the world.
THERE are others coming through, too. Rodgers is a regular spectator at every level at Celtic. He has stated that it is his passion to make players better. So where can that take the club?
‘It is highly unlikely to ever happen again,’ says Lawwell of the success of the Lions, who won the greatest trophy in club football with a Glasgow and District XI.
‘The commercial landscape has changed beyond all reasonable expectation since then. Commercial values are tied to television revenues and that has impacted on us and on clubs in other leagues.
‘But we still have ambition. We will never give up. We have to be smart in how we handle our affairs. I always talk about this theory of intellectual capital, but it has worked.
‘We try to put the best facilities, best processes and the best coaches in place and push on. Clearly, it would be very difficult for us to win a Champions League again without a transformational change in access to TV revenues.’
He believes no significant move in the organisation of leagues, whether European or cross-border, is likely within the next six years now that
changes to the Champions League have been agreed.
But as a board member of the European Club Association, he must know that there are tensions within such as La Liga and the Bundesliga over the growing chasm opened up in terms of revenue by the EPL.
‘I do not expect imminent change,’ he says. ‘But we are poised to react to anything we see to be in our favour.’
Has he been encouraged by Ajax reaching a Europa League final and Celta Vigo and Anderlecht performing creditably in the same competition?
‘Yes, but remember these clubs operate at a significant advantage to us,’ he says. The TV deal for the Eredivisie is £70million, compared to the SPFL’s £18.75m. Sponsorship also accrues a greater income in the Netherlands, Belgium and, of course, Spain.
Lawwell, who rejoined Celtic as chief executive in 2003, has been in a seat so hot it could have doubled for an electric chair at times, but he admits he has been inspired by the exploits of his team, manager and staff this year.
So, if his club delivers ten-in-a-row, will he be still at the helm?
‘I am enjoying the job and see no reason to contemplate anything else other than staying on,’ he says. ‘There is always going to be criticism in this job and I accept that. You have to have a tough skin but, more importantly, you must believe totally in what you are doing.
‘When the blame comes, it usually heads towards the chief executive. But there is an immense satisfaction in working for the club you support.’
Outside, the Celtic Way glimmers in the sunshine, the statues pay silent testimony to a proud past, but Lawwell remains an energised Bhoy on the eve of his birthday.