CELTS PUT ON A SHOW OF UNITY
Transfer fall-out all in the past for Rodgers and Lawwell at AGM
IT didn’t require a Masters in psychology to detect that Brendan Rodgers wasn’t exactly overly enamoured with the efforts of his paymasters to strengthen Celtic in the summer. Only sound hearing.
If the early signs of disquiet at failing to land unspecified transfer targets were audible in pre-season in Austria, a failure to sign John McGinn had the manager and the board separated in their outlooks by the length of Kerrydale Street.
Those gathered in the suite of the same name for the club’s AGM yesterday may have wondered if protective plastic sheeting would be required to prevent blood seeping onto the carpets. They needn’t have been concerned.
Sitting beside each other on the stage, Rodgers and Peter Lawwell, the club’s chief executive, couldn’t have appeared more united had they enacted their own private huddle in front of the assembled throng.
There was a frank admission from both men that the transfer window hadn’t been all they’d hoped it would be. But it came with no point-scoring or barbed remarks. Just a resolve to ensure January is a good deal better.
‘We would have liked to have done more. No question,’ Lawwell said. ‘It was a window where we broke a transfer record by paying 10million euros (£9m) for one player (Odsonne Edouard). That’s a fact.
‘We brought in another four new players and consolidated with another two lads who were on loan. But we wanted to do more. The reason we didn’t wasn’t because we didn’t want to invest. There was a willingness to do more.
‘It was a complicated matter and time for us. There’s no point in bringing in players just for the sake of bringing them in.
‘They have to be better than what you have or be able to develop into better than what you have.
‘At the moment, we’ve got a highly-talented squad and it’s not easy to bring in players of that quality. That was the fact in terms of the window.’
Insisting those fans pointing to the £17m profit the club made were missing the point, Lawwell added: ‘We don’t sit every month when the bank statement comes in and say: “How good are we? We’ve got X amount in the bank.” We are a football club. The purpose of having the money in the bank is to reinvest it back into the club and we’ll do that for the right players.
‘In the summer, it was frustrating. We wanted to do more and make the squad stronger.
‘It’s not a case of “get the cheque book out”. The cheque book is out. But these things happen.’
Pressed on why the club allowed McGinn — a boyhood Celtic fan — to bypass Parkhead in favour of a move to Aston Villa, Lawwell was unrepentant.
‘I’m satisfied that we did all we could in order to bring McGinn to Celtic. But he made a career decision to join Aston Villa. Just as Edouard made a career decision to join Celtic rather than other clubs. It happens.
‘Our job now going forward is to support Brendan. There was no lack of support for Brendan. He does an outstanding job, so why would we not support him? Of course we will.’
Nor did Rodgers attempt to sugar-coat a window which, at one point in August, moved him to claim he couldn’t work at a football club if he felt it was no longer moving forward.
Reprising his public admiration for the club’s directors, the Celtic boss adopted a far more diplomatic tone than two months ago.
‘I can’t pretend that I wasn’t disappointed in the summer. I think we all see that I’m not very good at hiding it,’ he said.
‘But what I’ve always had here since I’ve been at Celtic is great support from the board.
‘The success we’ve had in the last two-and-a-half years has been about this collective.
‘A collective performance on the pitch because that, for me, is where it all starts. And, very importantly, off the pitch.
‘Listen, we’re all human. When you work closely with people, like you’ll do at work or in your relationships, it’s not always singing and dancing every single day. ‘What I can always say about the board here is their job is always to future-proof the club. It has been run immaculately for a number of years. ‘From the time I’m here and from the time when I’m gone, it will continue to be. ‘The guys who are here do an incredible job, collectively, with me and the team in order to be the best we can be.
‘For two-and-a-half years, the supporters, the board, the management, we’ve all been one. And we’ll continue to be one.’
Unity and a pressing desire to ensure future windows aren’t quite so fractious were the main themes of a 110-minute meeting.
On the thorny subject of Marvin Compper, there was also some culpability on the manager’s behalf. Asked why the sum total of the German’s football in almost a year had been 83 minutes against Morton, Rodgers might well have asked for a comfort break.
To his credit, he replied: ‘As the leader of the team. I will always assume responsibility for every player who comes in to the club.
‘Marvin was brought in at a time when I thought we needed experience to help us with the young centre-halves we had.
‘Unfortunately he came in January and within his first week picked up an injury. Since that moment, he has really struggled for fitness.
‘In that period, other players have come in and performed well, such as young Kris Ajer.
‘With the unpredictability of his fitness, we had to sign another centre-half, (Filip) Benkovic, who has been fantastic since arriving.
‘So if you want to blame someone, blame me as it is just one of those unfortunate things.’
A largely convivial meeting heard chairman Ian Bankier describe the club’s recent balance sheet as ‘quality’ while insisting the investment in the stadium’s ‘disco lights’ was required in order to get floodlights up to UEFA’s new standard.
The financial results were ticked off as expected, with the re-election of directors going largely unopposed.
The subject of the rise in sectarian singing was addressed head-on by Bankier and Lawwell, with both pledging to do all they could to stamp out the problem, together with a promise to learn any lessons emanating from the investigation into the crush of fans underneath the North Stand before September’s Old Firm game.
There was no shortage of humour, though, with one veteran supporter using his 15 seconds of fame to ask the manager if he could try and get someone to try and shy the ball properly. Rodgers conceded he had a point.
Whether or not one of the club’s famous fans would concur with Bobby McCulloch’s suggestion is open to debate, though.
‘I read that Rod Stewart is worth £179m,’ said the supporter. ‘In that case, since he’s such a big fan of the club, couldn’t the board ask him to donate £20m towards the building of their hotel?
‘If the directors want to take my details, I’ll be willing to accept a reverse-charge call from him.’