As the Celtic fans are itching to try and catch the board’s attention with their own hard-hitting opinions, they shouldn’t expect Peter Lawwell to take notice anytime soon.
The fans were left furious after the club’s decision to keep Neil Lennon on board despite a string of dreadful performances and results. The Scottish Sun reported on Monday night that he was being given a stay of execution and would be given the chance to continue fighting for his job.
Lawwell then released a totally lifeless statement stressing unity last night, despite the fact the board are doing all they can to avoid listening to what the supporters want.
But the chief executive has shown his lack of interest in supporters’ opinion in the past. These comments in the Daily Record back in May 2019 when Lennon was appointed permanently saw Lawwell flat out say he doesn’t listen to outside opinion.
“I’m not online, I don’t go on it. But honestly, I’ve said hundreds of times, you need blinkers in this job. And if you react to online, or social media, or media, then you’re dead.
“You just need to keep on doing the right things and believe in yourself and making the right decisions. That’s what we’ve done – without any outside influences.
“We had approaches from many, many agents, many representatives of managers across the board. We put them in the file, just left it and kept our word to Neil, really.”
Hardly what the fans were after Peter
Listen, you don’t expect Lawwell to be on social media. That goes without saying. He would be subjected to a pretty abhorrent level of criticism that would undoubtedly trickle into personal territory. You can see why he would avoid it.
But he flat out says they make their decisions without any outside influences. What he meant by that is that he and Dermot Desmond make decisions on the club without allowing something as trivial as fan opinion to change their mind.
Always listen to your customers – that’s a message that should be loud and clear to Lawwell and Desmond at this point. It’s no wonder fans are furious with how the club is run when you’ve said in the past that you effectively don’t take their views into account.
The Celtic fans generally wanted an alternative to Lennon back in May 2019. The Celtic board’s reply? They didn’t even look at any other candidates in what was, in my own opinion, a pretty clear dereliction of duty. There should never have been an agreement with Lennon in the first place that he would get the job if he gave a reasonable stab at the temporary gig.
This was really poor from Lawwell at the time, and still he continues to ignore what the fans want in a fresh change. Why? Why is there an absolute disdain for what their supporters think? Okay, you can’t lie down and do everything the fans demand of you, but when we’re as collective as we are on the Lennon situation, you have to take stock.
But for those who remembered these 2019 comments from Lawwell, they’ll know not to expect him to start listening to any of us anytime soon.
In other news, we discuss why Celtic should actually try and take a leaf out of our rivals’ book.
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