{"id":5597,"date":"2014-08-28T13:53:57","date_gmt":"2014-08-28T12:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=5597"},"modified":"2014-08-28T14:14:40","modified_gmt":"2014-08-28T13:14:40","slug":"peter-lawwells-downsizing-of-celtic-gathers-pace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=5597","title":{"rendered":"Peter Lawwell\u2019s Downsizing Of Celtic Gathers Pace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Controversial subject header, eh? Um , not really unless of course you\u2019ve been brainwashed to such an extent by the Celtic PLC and their lackey\u2019s that you\u2019ve been programmed to no longer think for yourself<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Two seasons ago thanks to some outstanding scouting and managerial decisions, Neil Lennon created a team that managed to beat a Barcelona team 2-1 at Celtic Park in the Champions League group stages. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"the<\/p>\n

At the time Barca were widely regarded as the best team on the planet and a very good case was being made for them also being the best club side of all time. Aye, Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Alexis, Alves, Pedro, Valdes and co were not a bad wee team.<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/0\/football\/20150451<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/a>
\nLennon used his own knowledge of the English leagues to bring in over a relatively short period of time Joe Ledley, Gary Hooper, Kelvin Wilson, Adam Matthews and Kris Commons. His assistant coach at the time Alan Thompson\u2019s contacts to purchase Fraser Forster and scouting chief John Park to sign Victor Wanyama, Beram Kayal, Mikael Lustig and Efe Ambrose. <\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nOn paper Ledley was the pick of the bunch and it was something of a surprise when Lennon managed to convince him to sign on a Bosman for Celtic with Roma among other actively chasing the Welsh midfielder\u2019s signature. One of the keys to signing a player of Ledley\u2019s quality was the club willing to pay the player a reputed \u00a325k per week. A cracking player was signed and Ledley would go on to play a pivotal role in the success of the Celtic team against some top quality European opposition.<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nOf all the players, Ledley is the one who in my view is the best example to describe why the team has downsized dramatically in front of our eyes particularly over the past few months.<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nRonny Deila has now been quoted as saying Celtic can pay a decent transfer fee (it\u2019s all relative I suppose after years of working with buttons to spend in the Norwegian league) but the crux in his eyes is the club cannot pay the wages required to seal the transfer. One of the reasons quoted by Deila is it would cause disharmony with the current group of players. This comment puzzled me. Are Celtic alone in teams with such a large fanbase (and balance sheet) in refusing to upset employees because someone better is getting paid more? Will Jonny Evans be thumping Van Gaal\u2019s door at Man Utd demanding to be paid the same as Di Maria or he\u2019ll go in a cream puff? Did Chris Sutton demand that Martin O\u2019Neill paid him the same as Henrik Larsson or he would refuse to play? Does Charlie Mulgrew demand to be paid the same as Scott Brown or he\u2019ll threaten to cut off his quiff?<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nOf course not.<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nIt\u2019s nothing more than an excuse. It\u2019s clear Lawwell has set the wage parameters within which the manager will work and has limited this to such an extent it\u2019s proving extremely difficult to purchase any new quality players and proving damn nigh impossible to retain those who are performing exceptionally well.<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nIt\u2019s crazy economics watching a team disintegrate before your eyes while there\u2019s a healthy cash amount residing in the bank not being used due to a wage ceiling or..in some cases being utilised even more crazily by signing players last summer in Balde, Pukki and Boerrigter for circa \u00a35m and combined wages of around \u00a330k per week when we could have signed one quality player with that money!<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nIt bloody defies belief.<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nYou\u2019ll be reassured to know I\u2019m no economist and don\u2019t know my Dow Jones from my Sammy Dows but.common sense tells us the current approach of working around a salary limit but still signing players (even on loan) with the combined wages of one quality player is the cause of most of our problems at present.<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nThose running Celtic can hide their heads in the sand while transfer fees and wages increase or can take a step back and reflect on the current strategy and think, you know what, we must change our approach for the continued success of Celtic.<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nBefore the tub thumpers contact Anne Robinson at Points of View and demand my head on a plate, I\u2019m not suggesting the crazy economics of Leeds Utd and Rangers (Rest in Peace). What I am suggesting is logic prevails and the club use a great big dollop of common sense when dealing with player salaries. If we sign two or three top class players then pay them \u00a325-30k per week and retain the others within a sensible and manageable pay structure. Don\u2019t buy three average players for a total of \u00a35m and \u00a330k per week. Spend it on one very good player when your return on the football field has a better chance of success than the choice of getting rid of three players without a penny back in return.<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nCeltic has now missed out on around \u00a320m by not investing a single penny in transfer fees this summer. Having had the greatest slice of luck imaginable this summer when Legia fielder an ineligible player and allowed us two cracks at the Champions League, it\u2019s culpable bad management on Peter Lawwell\u2019s behalf to deny Ronny Deila an opportunity to bring in any quality players to play a style of football that requires pace and movement.<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nAfter last night\u2019s game thousands of supporters sang within the stadium; “Lawwell, Lawwell get to fcuk!!”<\/em> and there was a later protest involving a couple of hundred fans outside the main entrance to Celtic Park also demanding he leave the club. I\u2019m not quite at that stage but if he as Chief Executive doesn\u2019t change the signing\/wage strategy and stand up to Dermot Desmond (if that\u2019s the problem) then it won\u2019t be long before me and many other supporters join the throng also wanting Peter Lawwell removed from the club.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

– Hector Bandido<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Controversial subject header, eh? Um , not really unless of course you\u2019ve been brainwashed to such an extent by the Celtic PLC and their lackey\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/champions_league.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-1sh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5597"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5597"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5602,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5597\/revisions\/5602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}