Some conversations prove difficult to forget. But, even as this one was taking place, it all seemed peculiarly glass-half-empty. Perhaps, heaven forbid, even a touch paranoid. Peter Lawwell was sipping on a cup of tea in an oak panelled office just off the side of the Parkhead boardroom.
All very plush and perfectly civilised but, experience dictates, a place best avoided nonetheless. Every now and then throughout the years a request would be received for a one-to-one chat with Celtic’s chief executive and very often it felt more like a summons than an invitation.
That’s the way these things tend to play out with most clubs when something has been written or said which causes considerable consternation for whoever happens to be in charge. Anyway, whatever it was that put a bee in Lawwell’s bonnet on that particular day, Celtic were ticking along rather nicely under his stewardship.
If memory serves, seven or eight successive Premiership titles had been secured under his watch and there seemed very little indication that this trophy sweep would be coming to an end any time soon. And that’s when he said it. “What you have to realise is we’ll be hammered if we don’t win the ten,” or words to that effect.
All things considered, it felt like an absurdity. After all, Walter Smith’s legendary status had long since been secured - and for the rest of time - on the other side of the city as the man who led Rangers to nine in a row. Never once had the great man been denigrated as the manager who failed to win a tenth.
“Yeah but the rules are different for us,'' was Lawwell’s punchy, rather startling response. It certainly felt like a curious way of looking at things and maybe even an insinuation of some sort. As it turned out, he was spot on. But it wasn’t the papers or the press who lacerated Lawwell when the time came. Ultimately, it was Celtic’s own supporters who could not forgive the man in charge for falling at the final hurdle and, when it happened, their furious, foaming mouthed response meant he effectively had to leave the premises out of the back door with a blanket over his head.
That always felt like something of a travesty given the vast scale of Lawwell’s achievements during his 17 silverlined years at the helm, during which time 29 trophies were piled up outside that little meeting room. So it now seems perfectly fitting that he is to return to the nerve centre as newly appointed chairman now that Celtic’s situation has been stabilised, as a direct result of his last major act as the outgoing CEO.
Over the last 18 months, many may have tried to take the credit for Ange Postecoglou’s appointment but, be in no doubt, when Eddie Howe baulked at the thought of trying to reconnect the club with a support running riot in the car park, it was Lawwell who identified the big Aussie as the man best qualified for the job. It was Lawwell who made that phone call and it was Lawwell who talked him all the way into the departure lounge at Yokohama airport.
So it defies any kind of logic then that some Celtic fans fear Lawwell’s imminent return to the club might somehow derail the progress Postecoglou is putting together on the pitch. On the contrary, Lawwell’s comeback to the corridors of power will only underpin Celtic’s recovery rather than do anything to undermine it.
If the suspicion is that he may find it impossible not to interfere with Postecoglou’s handiwork then the man in the manager’s office doesn’t seem overly concerned. “He was hugely instrumental in bringing me to the football club,” Postecoglou confirmed the other day.
“Even though he hasn’t been working in an official capacity, he’s been a great supporter to me since I came here. It’s great to see him involved again as chairman. He’s had so much success at this club and he knows the place inside out. It’s great for me personally and for the football club.”
Given that Postecoglou has given Lawwell’s return his own personal stamp of approval it seems churlish in the extreme if there are those who resent it as some twisted point of principle. Put it this way, rivals Rangers are crying out for exactly this kind of robust, experienced presence in their boardroom as the Ibrox club lurches towards Tuesday's AGM.
It could be a potentially bruising experience for their own chairman, Douglas Park, whose re-election to the top job is being publicly opposed by Dave King. Park will have enough support around him in the boardroom to keep hold of his position at the top of the table. However, King’s appeal to the wider Rangers fan base will likely mean the motor tycoon could be left with a bloody nose all the same.
And those fans will most certainly want to know what the men in charge are prepared to do when it comes to funding new boss Michael Beale. Because while Postecoglou has already started his latest recruitment drive ahead of the January sales with his side nine points clear at the top of the table, Beale needs all the help he can get from those above.
Having raked in a small fortune over the last 12 months they seemed strangely reluctant to give Giovanni van Bronckhorst a fighting chance of surviving in this season’s Champions League and the Dutchman paid for this stinginess with his job.
By sacking him the board bought itself a bit of breathing space ahead of meeting with the shareholders and Beale’s return to Ibrox may also help to change some of the more negative narrative. But director of football Ross Wilson sounded awfully familiar last week at Beale’s official unveiling when he insisted money will be made available to the new man.
“Michael first and foremost wants to assess what’s here. There is certainly an assurance that, if he wants to do something in the market, then we will try to back that as much as we possibly can,” was how he put it.
Twelve months ago, at Van Bronckhorst’s first press conference, Wilson said: “Gio will take a view on the squad first and foremost. If Gio wants to do anything then we’ll take a view on that and take a look at it.”
At a moment in time when Lawwell on his way back to Glasgow’s east end, it just goes to show, the more things change the more they stay the same.
READ NEXT
