Peter Lawwell may be the pantomime villain for many Celtic fans, but his role in hauling the club clear of financial oblivion and towards continued trophy success is too often underplayed

There was a sobering conclave after the tumultuous drama that had infused a season. 

The meeting in a hotel room in Donetsk in October 2004 came just over a year after Celtic had reached the final of the UEFA Cup.

The mood was not congratulatory. Celtic’s power brokers Brian Quinn, chairman, Dermot Desmond, major shareholder, and Peter Lawwell, chief executive, had a conundrum to solve — and it had little to do with losing 3-0 to Shakhtar Donetsk in a Champions League tie.

The question was this: how had a massively lucrative 2002-03 season — that included the run to Seville with major broadcasting rights, given the team faced sides from Germany, England and Spain — ended with the club losing money?

It had just added to already substantial debt. How could this be addressed, and quickly?

The precise nature of the discussions and the decisions reached have never been formally publicised but one just has to examine what happened next to divine the conclusions reached.

If Celtic’s then model could not be sustainable — even with extraordinary achievement on foreign fields — how could the club go forward with a sense of viability?

Celtic embarked on a programme of living within its means, ending the wage structure that resembled that of top-level English clubs.

It was a defining moment. Fans have since regularly bemoaned that the club did not ‘kick on’ from Seville, did not back the manager, did not ‘invest in the future’.

In truth, Celtic were staring down the barrel of a solvency event if matters were not addressed.

The last 20 years have shown how successful the club has been in not only becoming one of the most admired operations in Europe in terms of the balance sheet but also enjoying a domestic dominance that is unprecedented.

Celtic have become the biggest club in the country in terms of season-ticket holders, merchandise revenue, blue-chip sponsorship deals and trophies won. They have money in the bank, wads of it. It carries a heavy influence in the Scottish game and, indeed, in the corridors of Europe.

It is a remarkable story but its hero is also its pantomime villain. Lawwell stands as the human pinata. Every ill is traced back to his door, every criticism is directed at his presence in the club.

As another transfer window unfolds, as another season prepares to launch, it is not difficult to find criticism of Lawwell online and in print. But surely there is a persuasive case to be made regarding his influence on an extraordinary era for the club?

The defence of the club chairman is easy to make, save for donning a helmet to protect oneself from the sharp rocks occasioned by an avalanche of criticism from his detractors.

First, there has to full disclosure. Any support for Lawwell is dismissed as being made by Peter’s Poodles, a designation given to some in the media. My admiration for Lawwell is not clouded by the fact that he is the man I fell out with most in my years working as a chief sports writer.

He defended Celtic aggressively. He pursued the club’s interest with energy and political savvy. We fell out. We fell in. There was always a wary respect on my side.

Second, there has to be the recognition that some criticism is not only valid but necessary.

Celtic is an important facet of many people’s lives. It stands for much more than football and it is right and proper that a board and its chief executive, now chairman, should be scrutinised carefully and with some asperity.

Thus the controversies over the Living Wage, the tension between income and expenditure on players, the dynamic of a ‘family club’ being a public company, all, and more, have to be part of any narrative. Lawwell’s popularity has ebbed and flowed on the tide of such issues. This is to be expected.

However, there is a narrative that is, frankly, preposterous. It has Lawwell over his years as chief executive as the man to blame when things went wrong, though not much ever did.

It now has the chairman, sitting presumably in a high-backed chair and stroking a white cat, dictating all that occurs in planet Celtic, perhaps beyond. If there was any truth in any of this, it has now disappeared. Lawwell’s role at Celtic is now largely as an administrator of due business diligence. The decisions that earn him much of the flak — who is sold for what and who is bought for what — are now not part of his remit.

This has already been made clear recently by a Celtic blogger with a solid history of club contacts and insider knowledge. It will be dismissed by some as pro-Lawwell propaganda. But it is still true.

Consider this. Brendan Rodgers is undoubtedly a Dermot Desmond appointment. The manager has the ear and carries the favour of the major shareholder.

Can one seriously suggest that Rodgers or, indeed chief executive Michael Nicholson has to wait for Lawwell’s approval of any deal? It is absurd to think so and betrays a lack of knowledge on how the club works.

Yet Lawwell and the truth of this assertion will be pilloried. The argument has moved beyond the reasonable.

There must be some sort of balance sheet compiled. Yes, on the debit side there have been downsides. European progress has stalled, but financial chasms can be cited.

Yes, issues over the Green Brigade have been handled clumsily. Recruitment has been a constant controversy, though it often goes unremarked that Celtic’s policy recently has produced a financial surplus, while delivering trophies, despite the regular incantation of disastrous windows.

Yes, the Living-Wage wrangle was unseemly and uncomfortable to those who view Celtic as more than a plc.

However, the upside of Lawwell’s tenure is astonishing. I use the term advisedly.

When he was a boy, living in a working-class home on the south side of Glasgow, he celebrated Celtic winning the title in 1966. It was only the second title Celtic had won since the cessation of hostilities in the Second World War. A year later he was standing in birthday tracksuit as the Lisbon Lions came home with the European Cup. This was glorious, joyous triumph.

But it signalled a transient era, not an enduring change in Scottish football. Celtic won nine consecutive championships but so did Rangers. Dundee United and Aberdeen also became the best teams in Scotland for a period.

The vista of the 21st century is completely different. Celtic have won 41 trophies in the new millennium. Lawwell has been at the club for 36 of them. One cannot blame him for ‘losing the 10’ without recognising his role in acquiring the 36.

Celtic are also financially successful. Some may snort at the importance of this, but one does not need to look far to see how the contrary can destroy a club. It is also pertinent to add that Celtic Park has been improved and Lennoxtown built under his watch.

Celtic are influential. At one time, the club were embroiled in continual battles with the domestic authorities. From Robert Kelly to Fergus McCann, the power brokers at Parkhead found much to anger them in the actions of the regulators.

Lawwell was similarly unamused at times but found a way to make Celtic’s case with a political subtlety that is at odds with his reputation as a bruiser.

Beyond these shores, his role as vice-chair of the European Club Association has given him a seat at the high table. There can be no doubt the club has benefited from that, not least in the preservation of a champion’s route to the lucrative group, now league, stages of the biggest club competition in the world.

He has also presided over the substantial growth of the Celtic Foundation. McCann was the driving force behind restoring the charitable aims of the club as a priority. Lawwell has pushed this on. It routinely raises and dispenses millions to the needy every year.

This is not to suggest that a campaign for canonisation is in order. Lawwell has argued and fallen out with many inside and outside of Celtic Park. He is not perfect but every decision made was in the best interests of Celtic. This has led to him being courted by Liverpool and Arsenal. He rejected both and stayed on at Parkhead.

The club stands firmly at the top of domestic football. They walk securely though the challenges of the game beyond these shores.

Celtic would not be in such a position without Peter Lawwell. This is surely inarguable.