Peter Lawwell expressed grave concern at the sale of Kyogo Furuhashi? He didn’t do much to rectify it as Celtic chairman in the year that followed, did he?
Eric Knott 
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - DECEMBER 14: Celtic Chairman Peter Lawwell during a Premier Sports Cup Final match between St Mirren and Celtic at Barclays Hampden, on December 14, 2025, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Today, Keith Jackson looks like a journalist who came to the party 33 games too late when it comes to Celtic’s season long woes.
He has decided to write a long, drawn out article in today’s Record on how Celtic have suffered without a decent recognised striker up front.
It tells us nothing we didn’t know already.
All it does is point out what Joe, James and I have been discussing on the Trinity Tims podcast for months.
But he didn’t use all of these things that we already know as the premise for his article.
No, he used Peter Lawwell.
In the article, Jackson makes a brief statement about Lawwell, and Lawwell’s opinion on the sales of Kyogo Furuhashi.
Which I find very hard to believe.
My skepticism is not unfounded because Jackson doesn’t elaborate much on it either.
Its as if he’s making it up as he goes along, and then realises that he’d better shut up incase anybody actually questions him on it.
Or asks him to quote his source.
Here’s what he had to say about the Celtic chairman:
As a matter of fact, behind closed doors, former chairman Peter Lawwell expressed some deeply held concerns over that decision to cash in on the Japanese international without having a ready-made replacement lined up.
At the time, Lawwell was worried about the impact Kyogo’s loss might have had on what was left of last season’s top flight campaign.
But, while ultimately his worst fears were proven to be misplaced when Brendan Rodgers secured the title with plenty to spare, Kyogo’s sale can now be ringed in red pen as the start of something much more catastrophic.
There’s a lot to unpack in that, isn’t there?
Firstly, who told Keith Jackson that Lawwell expressed those ‘deeply held concerns’, and why is it only emerging now?
And secondly, if Lawwell had such ‘deeply held concerns’, then why didn’t he act on them?
He had a year to figure out that we were bollocksed up front before he left, so why did he not do anything about it?
Of course, people are going to say that as Celtic Chairman, he didn’t have any say when it came to transfers.
Even if that was the case, which I’m sure it wasn’t, is the Celtic CEO not his protege?
His placeman, as it were?
If he voiced those ‘deeply held concerns’, why didn’t Michael Nicholson listen to them?
To be honest, none of this really adds up and it just seems to me like Jackson threw that in there to draw his readership into an article behind a paywall.
As I’ve stated already, if he had such ‘deeply held concerns’, then Celtic would have a prolific goal scorer in their ranks right now.
Surely a man of Lawwell’s stature could ‘advise’ Nicholson on how to acquire a striker that can actually score goals?
The reality is that because this story tells us absolutely nothing we don’t already know about the state Celtic is currently, Jackson needed something to draw the reader in.
He uses a vague reference to Peter Lawwell, and then chooses not to elaborate any further on it.
Despite it’s vagueness, he states its ‘a matter of fact’.
But give us no basis to that fact.
Instead, Jackson just goes off on a tangent on how we don’t have a decent recognised striker.
And how much that has cost us this season.
In summation, I smell bullshit when it comes to this story.
If Peter Lawwell was really bothered about the sale of Kyogo Furuhashi, and what it might have cost us, he would have done something about it.
He didn’t, and here we are almost 15 months later, still looking for a prolific goalscorer.
Something which now seems to be as rare as hen’s teeth at Celtic Park.
Jackson probably knew Lawwell wouldn’t say anything about his claim anyway.
Simply because it actually makes him ( Lawwell ) look good.
And after the way he exited Celtic Park, he needs all the positive press he can get.
Because he won’t be revered by the majority of Celtic fans, that’s for sure.
What next?
Willie Haughey telling us that Peter Lawwell deserves a statue alongside the great Dermot Desmond?
Nothing would shock me these days.
Nothing.
Key Takeaways
- Keith Jackson’s recent article on Celtic lacks new insights about the team’s striker issues, echoing discussions from the Trinity Tims podcast.
- He references Peter Lawwell’s supposed concerns but provides no solid evidence or elaboration.
- The article raises questions about why Lawwell didn’t act on these concerns before leaving his position.
- Jackson seems to use Lawwell’s vague mention as a tactic to attract readers without offering substantial information.
- The narrative ultimately reveals a need for Celtic to find a prolific goal scorer, a situation that remains unresolved.
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Bhoycie 
Phillip Cooney 
This is pathetic. Anything that you think is a positive story about a Board member BAD anything negative REALLY GOOD..
Why can’t you accept that it was not his role to get involved in transfers etc
I accept what people tell me. I do not usually brand them as liars.
You Eric just frame it to suit your narrative.
I think the article is more to do with criticism of a sub standard journalist. More pertinently anyone who has been paying attention knows that Peter Lawwell has been all over Celtics Recruitment and Sales for over 20 years and, other than Ange and Trimboli, has oversaw every transaction. In that context he would have been aware of Kyogo sale and been aware of the circumstances and short sightedness around it. And it’s a pathetic gesture by a poor journalist to attempt a small rehabilitation of a polarising figure
Lawwell will most certainly have a statue built…at Ibrox. He’ll be there, right beside Big John Greig.
Hail Hail.
Haughey sitting in that proximity with THAT Board raises all sorts of red flags with his recent pronouncements. Any true Celtic Fan sitting there would be screaming in those eejits ears about the ritual European failure they have presided over.
I see Scott Brown today calling bloggers vultures etc and defending the club.whats your thoughts Eric?
Broony protecting his interests incase a vacancy becomes available for him by the looks of it.He is unemployed at present.
Desmond lawell and the cabal do not have a shred of decency between them, corporate greed and austerity are the targets set at the start of the season , and they have been achieved with gusto which should have easy because that’s the default position, stop giving them your money and boycott the season tickets or you are complicit with this cabal .