Celtic pundit Paul John Dykes has criticised Peter Lawwell’s intrusion into the club’s footballing matters.
Dykes was hosting the latest episode of the ‘A Celtic State of Mind’ podcast and the panel discussed multiple issues involving the Bhoys. One topic of discussion was the club’s transfers and Dykes talked about Lawwell’s intrusion into the club’s business in the transfer window. Dykes believes that when Lawwell initially became the Celtic chief executive, he was meant to take control of the non-footballing matters at the club.
It was recently reported that Neil Lennon had doubts about the club’s signature of Shane Duffy in the summer transfer window and the manager had an idea of the Irishman’s limitations as a defender.
Is Peter Lawwell to be blamed for signing Shane Duffy?
Yes
No
Dykes questioned as to why the move went ahead, if Lennon had doubts about the player and he blamed Lawwell for that.
He said: “So Duffy comes in and it emerges during the week that Neil Lennon apparently had doubts about Shane Duffy. Now, what I’m going to do is I’m going to go back to 2003 when Peter Lawwell was appointed. Here is a direct quote from the press: ‘Celtic last week announced that businessman Peter Lawwell is to replace former chief executive Ian McLeod in the role of executive director, head of operations, in charge of all non-footballing matters. He’d previously been the financial controller at Celtic Park between 1990 and 1991, working under Terry Cassidy.’ So he comes back in, in 2003, and he’s dealing with all non-footballing matters.
“So if Neil Lennon didn’t fancy Shane Duffy and he didn’t sign him – just like Brendan Rodgers didn’t sign Maryan Shved and probably others, then who’s signing them? Who’s making that decision? Is it the guy who’s in position for ‘all non-footballing matters’? I think we all know the answer to that.”
TIF Thoughts on Dykes’ comments regarding Peter Lawwell…
While Duffy did start his Celtic career very well by scoring two goals in as many league games, he picked up rather underwhelming ratings against the likes of Aberdeen, Rangers, Milan, Lille, Hibernian and Sparta Prague (as per WhoScored).
Kris Commons had described him to be a ‘bomb scare’ following the club’s draw against Aberdeen in the Premiership. This suggests that his signing hasn’t been a success.
So if Lennon wasn’t sure about him as a player and if Lawwell still ended up signing the defender, the chief executive really does deserve criticism because Duffy hasn’t impressed during his time at Parkhead.