Natasha Meikle appeared on a recent edition of A Celtic State of Mind with Paul John Dykes and Lawrence Connolly, during which she spent some time talking about the possibility that the Glasgow club is currently planning for life after Peter Lawwell “in the background”.
This comes after the Celtic chief executive has come under fire from some of late, such as former Hoops player Davie Provan, who has declared that it’s time for him to go. Lawwell was also recently slammed by fans of the Glasgow club after he issued an apology to Celtic supporters via a video over the club’s controversial trip to Dubai earlier this month.
The recent criticism of Lawwell may not come as a huge surprise, given that Celtic trail their Old Firm rivals by a significant margin in the Premiership at present, damaging their hopes of winning a potentially historic 10th-straight Scottish top-flight title this term, while Celtic have also been knocked out of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and the Scottish League Cup this season, so it may be understandable if the atmosphere isn’t entirely pleasant around Parkhead at the moment.
During this podcast, Meikle shared her thoughts on Celtic potentially moving on from Lawwell. She believes “it’s time for a change” at Parkhead and suggested there’s a chance that the Hoops may even already be transitioning from Lawwell to a new chief executive behind the scenes, which is something she would be happy about.
Meikle said: “It’s time for a change because we can’t live on past successes, but removing a CEO, in any business, is a big upheaval and that’s not the sort of thing that can happen overnight.
“What’s perhaps more likely to happen – and maybe it is already happening in the background – is that Lawwell is lining someone up to take over from him and there’s more of a transition period – that’s something I would welcome.”
Should Celtic move on from Lawwell?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts on what Meikle said about Celtic’s potential Lawwell succession planning…
So, it certainly seems, based on what Meikle has said, as well as the reaction to Lawwell’s video message and the comments that were recently made by Provan, that there’s plenty of desire amongst members of the Parkhead faithful to see the last of Lawwell.
It will be interesting to see if it does become apparent that the Hoops are planning for life after Lawwell, as Meikle seemingly believes they may be. It would almost certainly represent a huge change at the club, with Lawwell having been at the helm since 2003.
It remains to be seen if that is the case, but given that this season has clearly not gone to plan and Celtic are on course to fail in their pursuit of a 10th-straight Premiership title despite Lawwell claiming two years ago that there was no need for a major rebuild at Parkhead to secure future success, which now seems to have been a mistake, perhaps you could argue that his position should be looked at.