The news that Mark Lawwell was leaving his post as Head of First Team Scouting and Recruitment at Celtic didn’t come as much of a surprise to supporters.
The club released a statement on Friday confirming the situation, with Lead First Team Scout Joe Dudgeon also making his exit at the same time.
They have officially resigned from their posts and have been placed on gardening leave, meaning they won’t be involved in any further planning ahead of the summer transfer window.
In the aftermath, a few details have come out about Lawwell’s time at the club, which has been much maligned in recent weeks and months after successive lacklustre transfer windows.
Mark Lawwell’s Celtic transfer instructions
Journalist Stephen McGowan reports in the Scottish Daily Mail [02/03 print edition] that Lawwell was given the remit of targeting players between the ages of 19 and 23, but that they should also have international experience and fit certain financial criteria.
That ties in with the kind of player we’ve seen arrive at Celtic recently and perhaps suggests it was the strategy given to Lawwell by the board that led to some of the recruitment issues.
That is a pretty restrictive pool to work from, especially when you consider experienced professionals such as Carl Starfelt, Aaron Mooy and Giorgos Giakoumakis all left the club in 2023. They always needed to be replaced.
There is nothing wrong with targeting young players who have good potential, but there must be leeway given to attract players of a higher quality who may have more experience. There should be more balance.
Source briefs on Lawwell’s spell at Celtic
Meanwhile, in The Scottish Sun, a source ‘close to the club’ told reporter David Friel that Lawwell may have been looking to move on partly because Ange Postecoglou was no longer there.
The source talks up Lawwell’s links to Postecoglou, credits him with recommending the manager to the Bhoys and pitches him as the Australian’s man at Celtic, having previously worked together in the City Football Group.
Now Postecoglou is gone, it’s said, Lawwell felt it was the right time to leave.
It seems one side wants to get a rosier side of the Lawwell story at Celtic out there, given all the criticism that has come his way in recent times.
Regardless, if Celtic are to move on positively in terms of transfers, a change in approach is needed even if Lawwell has left his role.
The executive team will ideally appoint a figure with good football experience to work with Rodgers and start to deliver the standard of player we need to refresh and rebuild the current team, with lots of work to do over the summer months.
Most importantly, they must be given proper resources and not be too restricted by specific profile criteria that are counterproductive to a manager’s ambitions. It’s a big market out there and Celtic must look at all kinds of players.
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