Peter Lawwell was convinced Paul Le Guen was destined to fail at Rangers after receiving insight from a French-based Celtic FAN, it has been claimed.
Lawwell, now chairman at Parkhead, was appointed chief executive of the Hoops three years prior to their rivals hiring Le Guen in 2006. The Frenchman was seen as a major coup at the time after winning a hat-trick of successive French Ligue 1 titles with Lyon. But he had a disastrously short spell at the Light Blues helm with just 31 games and seven months before the axe fell and the late Walter Smith brought in to clean up the mess left behind by Alex McLeish’s successor.
And now veteran broadcaster Graham Spiers has shared a conversation he had with Lawwell at the time on his Press Box podcast. He said: “I’ll never forget a conversation I had back then with Peter Lawwell, not long in the door as Celtic CEO, who had a vivid story to tell me and, as it turned out, a prophetic one, about Paul Le Guen. It was revealing. Peter Lawwell told me how anxious Celtic felt about Rangers landing Paul Le Guen. Lawwell believed this was the real deal – a top European coach and maybe indeed the next Arsene Wenger.
“Peter explained to me how it was discussed at Celtic boardroom level and how they would have to stiffen their resolve to face this new challenge at Rangers under Le Guen. But he said the anxiety was suddenly somehow allayed by a letter he received from a Celtic fan who lived and worked in Lyon and who had closely watched Le Guen and Lyon’s success.
“And this Celtic supporter told Peter Lawwell ‘you’ve got nothing to worry about, I don’t think Le Guen and Rangers will work. It’s the wrong model. At Lyon Le Guen was the head coach, he signed no-one and was merely given the players to work with. He had nothing to do with transfer market activity at all.
“This private information was interesting to me on three counts. First it was true a guy called Bernard Lacombe, the great French striker of the 1970s, had been given the role of director of football and credited with so much of Lyon’s success during that Le Guen period, three league titles.
“Secondly, because as it transpired Le Guen took on the role of signing players. Rangers had next to no scouting department. Le Guen made such a mess of buying in players – I give you an untried Swedish centre back Karl Svensson. And, thirdly, because as Peter Lawwell told me, this message he received from France suddenly made Celtic look at Le Guen differently. The whole Scottish press were excited and upbeat, and I was right in there myself, but Celtic began to think ‘okay, let’s see how this unfolds’. And it did unfold – or unravel!”