In a club statement, on the back of sustained criticism from supporters through the January 2024 transfer window Peter Lawwell highlighted the ‘inherent inefficiencies of holding excess cash’.
Timeline, 23 February 2024.
Roll forward 17 months and it seems that three transfer windows later nothing has been learned or changed about transfer strategy.
True Celtic have added titles 54 and 55 since those comments but many supporters have aspirations slightly above finishing ahead of the Tribute Act created by Charles Green in the summer of 2012.
Celtic fans look towards Club Brugge, to Benfica and Porto, well run clubs outside the five rich nations that use access to the Champions League to create a sustainable business model.
Those three clubs and many more routinely sell their best players but supporters take it in their stride. They have mature, refined recruitment policies and Academy set ups that provide a supply of outstanding talent just waiting for their opportunity.
At Celtic they club has three methods of recruitment:
- Try to re-sign players that have left in previous transfer windows
- Lowall clubs with bids and hope that they bite while telling trusted messengers that they won’t be held to ransom
- Get exciting loan deals from big clubs and pretend that Celtic develop future stars.
The option of developing players from the Celtic Academy has utterly stalled. How else do you explain one SPFL Premiership start in the last four seasons for a player coming out of the Academy?
Or Mitchell Robertson captaining the B team against Broxburn Athletic and Civil Service Strollers on the back of three campaigns totalling 16 appearances in the UEFA Youth League?
Clearly a club that has ran out of ideas, playing the McGregor or Forrest card is running a bit thin.
Picking up on his comments in the Interim Report, on 23 February 2024 the Celtic website reported Lawwell saying:
From a funding perspective, the cash and cash equivalents balance reduced from £72.3m to £67.3m in the period under review. A significant proportion of this cash is committed to the creation of a new training centre at the Barrowfield site, the finalisation of the Lennoxtown developments and future stadium expenditure.
The Board recognises the inherent inefficiencies of holding excess cash, and, in conjunction with other cash commitments, the importance of investing in strengthening the team to deliver football success. The Board shares the frustrations of the supporters regarding the less than anticipated activity in the recent transfer window.
Since the opening of the transfer window in June 2023, and up to the end of the winter transfer window which closed on 1st February 2024, we have committed £23.9m in player investment. Within this we renewed and extended the contracts of Cameron Carter-Vickers, Liel Abada, Matt O’Riley, Anthony Ralston and Reo Hatate.
The Board’s commitment is to strengthen and improve the playing squad in every transfer window and although resources were available, we were unable to further add to the squad due to the unavailability of identified targets. This was disappointing to us all, and never the intention. The January transfer window is notoriously difficult as clubs are very reluctant to let their best players go at such a crucial time of the season just as we are. Indeed, we resisted strong interest in our players from other clubs.
When the January 2024 window closed Chairman Lawwell viewed the above banner at Pittodrie, a match that Celtic drew 1-1.
With the finances swelled further by another Champions League campaign, bringing in £40m directly from UEFA alongside five sell-out gates, an enhanced deal with Adidas and the sale of Kuhn the clubs bank balance has never been higher.
Despite the words of Lawwell 18 months ago it appears that nothing has been learned from the two transfer windows in the 23/24 season.
Players have to be sold before new signings are made, lowball bids drag negotiations out longer than necessary with Michael Nicholson still in charge and employing the same tactics dealing with clubs.
Nicholson’s failings are now escalating, his inability to secure the £5m signing of Jakob Breum from Go Ahead Eagles has put a hold on the moves for Yang Hyun-jun and Marco Tilio with Norwich City and Rapid Vienna moving on to alternative targets, as proper club do.
After the warning about the ‘inherent inefficiencies of holding excess cash’ Celtic again left it too late with transfer activity during the summer 2024 transfer window.
There were no new outfield signings in the squad that prepared for the new season with a fortnight and three matches in the USA, the process to buy Paulo Bernardo and Adam Idah was unnecessarily laboured then in panic at the close of the transfer window three players were signed up.
This January 2025 Rodgers agreed to sell Kyogo Furuhashi with the striker arriving in Rennes on January 23, Nicholson failed to deliver a replacement with Daniel Cummings and Dane Murray appearing in the side away to Aston Villa.
The failure to replace Kyogo was a costly one- could he have created a goal away to Bayern Munich? Could he have come up with another big goal at Hampden in the Scottish Cup Final?
Now the same process is being repeated with Kuhn.
His departure had been flagged up in January, even the long term injury to Jota didn’t derail that plan.
Lowballing for Breum has gone public, the knock on effect risks missing out on the deals to sell Yang Hyun-jun and Marco Tilio, both are likely to be on the team sheet on Sunday to face St Mirren.
Watching coldly from the decaying South Stand will be Lawwell and his boardroom chums, clearly ignoring his warning from February 2024.
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