Lawwell backs Ronny as Celtic count their losses
PETER LAWWELL last night insisted the Celtic board remain behind Ronny Deila — on the day the financial impact of failing to reach the Champions League last season was laid bare. The Parkhead club yesterday announced a £4million pre-tax loss for the year up to June 30 in their preliminary results — a drop of £15m from the previous year. With revenue also falling by 21 per cent to £51m, the cost of successive defeats to Legia Warsaw and Maribor a year ago was underscored. But, despite also going down to Malmo in this season’s final Champions League qualifier — the financial impact of which will be illustrated in a year’s time — chief executive Lawwell said Deila retains the complete faith of his employers. ‘One of the reasons the club has been successful in the last number of years is not making knee-jerk reactions to particular results and now taking a longer view,’ said Lawwell. ‘That’s what we are doing here. He has our support and we believe he is the right man for the job. ‘He’s been successful. He won the league and the League Cup. You have nights like Malmo. It’s thin margins in football.’
IN THE first 101 years of its history, Celtic had just six managers. In the subsequent 26 years, 11 different men have occupied the chair. All of which suggests that Ronny Deila’s current existence is somewhat precarious. That last month’s loss to Malmo — on the back of last season’s European exits — was the equivalent of the second of his three strikes.
But, despite t he f i nancial implications of such failure being highlighted in the club’s preliminary financial results yesterday, the backing the Norwegian continues to enjoy from those who hired him last year is undiminished.
‘ He’s been successful,’ chief executive Peter Lawwell said. ‘He won the league and the League Cup. You have nights like Malmo. It’s thin margins.
‘It happened to Scotland the other night in Georgia — they were the better team with better players but just didn’t turn up.’
Asked if the reverse to the Swedes had in any way diminished the faith the board had in their man, Lawwell replied: ‘Not at all. One of the reasons the club has been successful in the last number of years is not making knee-jerk reactions to particular results.
‘He has our support and we believe he is the right man for the job.
‘We need to create and innovate and that’s what he is — a builder.
‘We can’t afford the very best players, so we need to create the best. That’s what we’re about.’
Celtic’s results a year from now will doubtless be sweetened by the £13million they have just raked in f rom Southampton f or Virgil van Dijk.
Lawwell is adamant that figure could well have shown up in the results issued yesterday but that a conscious decision was taken not to sell at that juncture.
‘ We are not disappointed or surprised,’ he added of the figures that also showed revenue dropping 21 per cent to £51m. ‘We are in control — we knew where we were with the results.
‘We could have been reporting a profit if we had decided to sell players but we decided not to — and to try to be successful in Scotland and get out of the other side of the Europa League.
‘It could have been a profit and we expect to make a profit this year.
‘The club is very well placed financially. We’ve got money in the bank and resources going forward.
‘Our commitment to reinvesting everything that comes into the club remains.’
With inclusion in the Champions League proper now worth a minimum of £ 21m, successive years of tripping up in the qualifiers comes at a considerable cost.
While acknowledging that a failure to capture such eye-watering sums is a blow, Lawwell contends that will always be money the club doesn’t rely on.
‘We don’t bank on Champions League money — it’s real upside for us,’ he stressed. ‘Of course, it’s a huge blow, not just financially but for the football side because of the prestige being in the Champions League brings.
‘We’re a Champions League club. We maintain that. We should be in it and we want to be in it.
‘Not being in it has a financial effect. But I think we are agile enough in terms of what we have here, that we can make up for it — as we’ve seen this summer (with the sale of van Dijk).
‘That’s part of our business now — identifying talent, developing it here and selling it on. We have enough assets that protects the real stable foundation of the club.’
Celtic shelled out £9.4m on players in the year ending June 30 — with Lawwell also underscoring the additional outlay in the summer window.
‘This year, in the window, we spent nearly £8m and, if you add what we did i n January, this calendar year we’ve spent over £10m on transfers,’ he added.
‘In a Scottish context, that is absolutely massive. We have reinvested. So despite the loss, we are in good shape.’
Were Celtic to win a fifth successive title this season, Deila would be under mounting pressure to deliver Champions League football at the third time of asking. But Lawwell maintains that even in the event they fell at that hurdle again, it would not spell financial disaster.
‘We’re robust enough to take that blow,’ he insisted.
‘It’s not in our thinking at the moment. Our thinking is that we are going to get in it.’
Despite Rangers chairman Dave King’s proclamation this week that the Ibrox club would do whatever was required to challenge Celtic at the first time of asking for the title, Lawwell insists Celtic are only concerned with the here and now.
‘ Our f ocus i s our nearest challengers, which are Aberdeen,’ he said.
‘They’ve done a great job up there and it’s going to be extremely difficult to win the league this year. That’s what we’re concentrating on.’