PETER LAWWELL has disputed Celtic being a selling club when asked by a shareholder what kind of club we wanted to be. Ajax being used as a model of what we could attempt to be in Europe if we keep some of our top players for longer.

However, the chief executive took exception to the notion Celtic are an out and out selling club and pointed to Kieran Tierney being sold more down to the player’s desire to leave than Celtic pushing him out the door for a big fee. For the record, we think a bit of both were at play during that particular transfer.

Lawwell also put it back to the shareholder that before Ajax’s resurgence on the European stage, the club didn’t win the league for four leagues while they developed a team capable of competing and queries whether seeing our rivals win the league for four years would be an acceptable trade off for a Champions League run.

“What is your ambition? To be an Ajax? Or to be a selling club?” The Shareholder asked the panel as cited by RecordSport.

Lawwell responded:

“The ambition is maximising potential of this great club, and going as far as we can go in Europe.

“Celtic is not a selling club, if you get a player like Kieran (Tierney) the attraction of a team like Arsenal becomes too much.

“As much as we wanted him to stay, it’s our job is to get most money. I don’t believe Tierney was sold cheaply. Ajax hadn’t won league four years before their bold new dawn.

“Would you take Rangers winning the league for four years to maybe reach a Champions League semi-final?”

That would be a trade off no Celtic fan would expect but then again it’s a false narrative to push. There’s no reason why both can’t be achieved in a season.

‘Maximising potential’ is another vague and erroneous platitude. How can we as a club maximise our potential IF there are no parameters in place or goals to work towards.

For Peter Lawwell his goal is to make sure the club stays healthy financially, our goal as fans is to see the club doing as well as humanly possible.