Lawwells legacy. The managers. The success. The failures.

Peter Lawwell has presided over one of the most successful periods in Celtic’s history.  Over his time, Celtic became one of only five clubs in the world to win over 100 trophies in their history.  A Quadruple Treble, Invincibles season, Champions League successes, Lawwell has presided over it all.

He has also watched over glorious failures.  Failed league campaigns, capitulations in Europe and cup disappointments.  The failures are there but fortunately the successes far outweigh the disappointments.

Lawwell has also overseen six different managerial changes in his time.  Between them all they have overseen thirteen Scottish League Championships, nine Scottish Cups and seven League cups and out of all these managers, only one of them presided over a trophy less season.

Celtic’s domestic dominance over Lawwell’s stewardship has been unrivalled but for a spell, mainly at the beginning of his tenure, Celtic were a name feared across Europe as consistent Champions League participation, where Celtic negotiated the League stage on more than one occasion, the Celtic Park atmosphere became legendary amongst Europe’s elite players.

Today we take a look at the six managers that have brought success and, for want of a better word, shame over the last seventeen years to the famous Glasgow Celtic.

Gordon Strachan (2005-2009)

Gordon Strachan signed for Celtic in 2005, taking over from the then legendary Martin O’Neill.  Strachan had big boots to fill as O’Neill was Celtic’s most successful manager since Jock Stein at that time.

The enigmatic Scotsman became a firm favourite with the fans with his quirky media style and his dry wit and humour whenever posed a question he deemed stupid from the media.

Strachan was out of football for 16 months before Celtic came calling and was tasked with wrestling the league title back from their Glasgow rivals.  Strachan didn’t have the best start to his Hoops career as he was dealt a humiliating 5-0 defeat in Europe by relatively unknown Slovak side Artmedia Bratislava.  He followed this up with a 4-4 draw with Motherwell. Strachan did eventually go onto win the League by 17 points and defeated Dunfermline in the League Cup Final 3-0.

The Scottish Cup was a write off that season with the infamous 2-0 defeat to Clyde on Roy Keane’s debut. The most memorable day in Strachans’ reign was Nakamura’s late free kick at Rugby Park to defeat Kilmarnock and seal the league title.

Strachan brought some supremely talented players to Celtic in his time with Japanese superstar Shunsuke Nakamura the pick of the bunch.  Strachan also brought the likes of Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink from PSV and Thomas Gravesen from Real Madrid but he also brought in some Scottish talent to balance the dressing room with Kenny Miller, Steven Pressley and Kenny Miller.

Over the course of the four years in charge Strachan brought not only domestic success with three league titles, a Scottish Cup and two league cups but also European triumph’s by progressing to the last 16 in the Champions League two seasons in a row with the most memorable of those victories arguably the 1-0 home win against Manchester Utd with a last minute 30 yard free kick from Nakamura.

Tony Mowbray (2009-2010)

Tony Mowbray signed for Celtic in June 2009 after Celtic paid a £2m compensation to West Bromwich Albion. Mowbray was known in the English game for his attacking style of play and that seemed to suit the type of play Celtic fans had become accustomed to.

Mowbray brought in his own coaching staff, which included current manager Neil Lennon.  The season started off with so much promise with Mowbray’s men turning round a 1-0 Champions League deficit to Dinamo Moscow with a 2-0 win in the return leg. Celtic eventually lost out to Arsenal in the play off round.

Mowbray’s signing policy was questionable after paying over £3.5m for Marc Antoine Fortune and the signings of Zheng Zhi, Edson Braahfeid, Diomansy Kamara and Llandry N’Guemo. However, Mowbray did also recruit Ki Sung Yeung and Robbie Keane but overall his transfer dealings were failures.

Mowbray’s domestic season started off brightly, unbeaten in his first seven matches but then fell at Ibrox in the first Glasgow Derby of the season. Not long after that result, Hearts despatched Celtic from the league cup in the quarter final stage in October.  Both those results where sandwiched between a disastrous Europa League campaign where Celtic managed just one win in a group that contained Hamburg, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Rapid Wien.

Further defeats to Hibs, Kilmarnock and another to Rangers put the gaffer under immense pressure but the final nail in Mowbray’s coffin was the 4-0 defeat by St Mirren at Love Street.  He was then dismissed in March with Celtic picking up no honours that season.

Neil Lennon (2010-2014)

Neil Lennon’s first stint as Celtic boss was initially in the caretaker role to oversee the team after Tony Mowbray’s ill fated spell. His remit was to see the team through to the end of the season whilst the Celtic board searched for a long term replacement.  Lennon appointed Johan Mjallby as his assistant.

Lennon took the team through the final eight league matches unbeaten which included a 2-1 against their Glasgow rivals but unfortunately, the Hoops were unceremoniously dumped out the Scottish Cup at the semi final stage 2-0 by lowly Ross County.

The league form convinced the Celtic board to appoint Lennon as the permanent manager. Little did he, or the Celtic board, know that his appointment was starting a chain of events that would lead to the beginning of the quest to nine in a row.

Lennon spent four years in his first stint at Paradise winning three League titles and two Scottish Cups but he also oversaw the demise of his great rivals not only on the pitch, but off it.

Lennon’s signings were of a mixed bag. He secured the likes of Virgil Van Djik, Leigh Griffiths, Victor Wanyama, Fraser Forster, Tom Rogic, and Scott Brown. Lennon also gave first team debut’s to Callum McGregor and James Forrest. He did however sign the likes of Mo Bangura, Kelvin Wilson and Daryl Murphy.

Without doubt, Lennon’s greatest European achievement was taking Celtic to the Champions League Group stages on the clubs 125th birthday where he defeated Barcelona 2-1 in that famous night at Celtic Park. Celtic qualified out of the group to the last 16 of the tournament only to be eliminated by Juventus.

Lennon’s low point was the 1-0  home defeat to Greenock Morton in the League Cup. Lennon eventually left Celtic in 2014 after four years in charge.

Ronny Deila (2014-2016)

Ronny Deila took the reigns from Neil Lennon in June 2014 and promised attacking and exciting football for the fans. It is not clear whether Deila chose his own backroom team, but John Collins joined him as his assistant.  Deila had a decent start to his job with a Champions League first round qualifying 5-0 aggregate win against KR Reykjavik.  The Hoops were subsequently humbled by Polish Champions, Legia Warsaw, 6-1 in aggregate in the following round and Legia were disqualified and Celtic progressed to the next round only to be eliminated by Maribor 2-1 on aggregate.

Deila’s first foray into the transfer market saw him bring Dundee Utd duo Stuart Armstrong and Gary MacKay Steven to the club but he also secured the signature of Craig Gordon, who had been out of football for 2 years, who then went onto have an outstanding career with the Hoops.  Deila did sign some players with great potential with the likes of John Guideti signing for £3m and Jason Denayer coming in on loan.

Ronny’s second year into the transfer market was more successful as he brought in the likes of Eric Sviatchenko, Jozo Simunovic, Ryan Christie, Patrick Roberts, Dedryck Boyatta and Teemu Pukki but then all of those were negated with the capture of Colin Kazeem Richards and Tyler Blacklett.

Ronny also signed instantly forgettable Stefan Scepovic, Joe Inge Bergett and Mubarak Wakaso in transfers worth in excess of £8m.

The Celtic support took Ronny to their hearts the day the “Ronny Roar” was born and this became the young Norwegians trademark hail to the supporters.

Deila did deliver two league titles, losing only 3 league games in his first season four in his second, and a league cup but the final straw was when in season 2015 the newly formed Rangers knocked the Hoops out of the Scottish Cup in the semi final stage and Deila said himself that he had taken the team as far as he could. Deila left at the end of the season by mutual consent.

Brendan Rodgers (2016-2019)

Brendan Rodgers signed for Celtic after the furore of Celtic being eliminated from the Scottish Cup by their Glasgow rivals and he was met with a record crowd at Celtic Park.  Brendan changed the philosophy of how the club was run and the impact was immediate.

In Rodgers first season, he won the clubs first treble since Martin O’Neill’s era and completed the feat by going through the season unbeaten and the “Invincibles” were born.

Rodgers career at the Hoops didn’t start off well as an embarrassing 1-0 defeat at Gibraltan minnows, Lincoln Red Imps, in the the first qualifying round 1st leg sent shockwaves through the Parkhead support. Celtic did overcome their opponents and qualified for the Group Stages but found that European embarrassment was going to be a feature of Rodgers tenure as the Hoops were humbled 7-0 by Barcelona at the Nou Camp in the first group stage game.

The following season’s Champions League campaign also saw Rodgers Celtic humbled twice by Paris St Germain 7-1 in Paris and 5-0 in Glasgow as he couldn’t quite find the correct formula to take on Europe’s elite.

Rodgers domestic record was unperturbed.  He was the first manager to win a treble undefeated, then a subsequent treble the next the season saw the Irishman written into folklore.

His forays into the transfer market were a mixed bag of results but he did sign the likes of Moussa Dembele, Scott Sinclair, Olivier Ntcham and Odsonne Edouard.  Rodgers did have his scary signings with the likes of the infamous Marvin Compper, Dorus De Vries and Eboue Kouassi.

Rodgers was without doubt an undeniable success and the best manager we have seen at Celtic Park in decades, but the manner he left, in February 2019, to take over at Leicester City, when a third treble was still to be secured, will always leave a bad taste in the Celtic fans mouths.

Neil Lennon (2019-Present)

Neil Lennon answered Celtic’s call in February 2019 when Rodgers left Celtic rudderless. His remit was to secure the 8th title in a row and the Scottish Cup was second.  Lennon secure both and sealed Celtic’s unprecedented Treble Treble.  Lennon was famously offered the permanent position “in the shower room” after CEO, Peter Lawwell, proudly exclaimed that he had not even considered another candidate.

The following season, Lennon delivered another Treble and the 9th title in a row, when the season was called short early due to the COVID-19 pandemic but the Scottish Cup was not secured until the following season, and a world record Quadruple Treble was secured for Celtic.

The race for the Ten was is sight but it spectacularly fell flat on it’s face when poor form, player unrest and poor recruitment in the transfer window meant Celtic fell out of the title race, were eliminated from European competition and an outstanding cup run was brought to an end with another 2-0 defeat by Ross County in the League Cup meant serious pressure was on the Celtic boss to resign.

He currently remains in the role until at least the end of this season with only the Scottish Cup left to contest.  It is fair to say that although Lennon brought outstanding success to the club, his role, and Lawwell’s, will not be forgotten for failing to secure Celtic’s tenth title in a row.