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BLAME THE BOSSES AND START SPENDING DECLARES NICHOLAS

Gordon Strachan

Friday November 28,2008

By Gary Keown

CHIEF executive Peter Lawwell must shoulder most of the blame for Celtic’s Champions League collapse and give boss Gordon Strachan the freedom to spend and strengthen.

That’s the hard-hitting view of Hoops legend Charlie Nicholas, who reckons it’s high time the Parkhead board stopped banging on about budgets and ditched their “car boot sale” mentality.

Nicholas was horrified by the 2-1 loss to Danes Aalborg that ended Celts’ Euro campaign and reckons the club is drifting towards becoming a continental minnow rather than building on two seasons in the last 16.

He reckons Lawwell has become power-crazy after turning down Arsenal for a big pay-rise and has told him to free up funds for Strachan and then butt out of transfer business.

Nicholas blasted: “Lawwell and the rest of them don’t like what I say and I’m told they’ve even taken down photos of me inside the corridors of Parkhead, but I’m only telling the truth.

I’m sure the next set of financial figures will be good, but isn’t it time Celtic gave something back and stopped kidding people on?

Charlie Nicholas

“After Tuesday, Celtic have got to start investing properly in the squad. Do they really want to maintain a reputation in Europe or simply be SPL challengers?They’ve just been knocked out by a team no better than Motherwell.

“Strachan has had success, but he has been forever told to cut budgets and get rid of players and is now dealing with a car boot sale-type team.

“Strachan must take responsibility for the disaster of the Champions League, but I feel for him because I know he went for the Romanian defender Gabriel Tamas and several others in the summer and his list was nowhere close to being delivered.

“Most of the responsibility for what’s happened must rest at the chief exec’s door and I think Lawwell has become carried away by his own sense of power.

“He seems to think he’s like Sir David Murray at Rangers, but he doesn’t own the club.He got himself a salary top-up after saying ‘no’ to Arsenal, but he’d come down like a ton of bricks on any player who sought to do the same thing.

“I’m sure the next set of financial figures will be good, but isn’t it time Celtic gave something back and stopped kidding people on?”