Peter Lawwell says Celtic on right road despite surge in debt

There is a chill in the air in Scottish football, but Celtic aim to beat it by trading their way to glory. Peter Lawwell, the club's chief executive, is confident that the process of identifying players who can take the team back to the Champions League is a blueprint which can help overcome the bleak financial outlook.

The system is already being shown to have reaped a dividend. Celtic moved five points clear of Rangers at the top of the SPL on Sunday after a 3-1 win over Dundee United at Tannadice. A hungry, talented and, crucially, young side swept United aside to record their fifth consecutive league victory. Lawwell yesterday noted that Neil Lennon's starting XI had an average age of just 23.

"It's still very early in the process, but we have certainly spent a lot of money, under (football development manager] John Park, on the process of player identification and player evaluation," said Lawwell, in an interview yesterday with The Scotsman.

The final say, however, rests with Lennon. "We would not acquire a player unless he has said 'yes'," stressed Lawwell.

Lennon has proved himself to be a good judge of player on the evidence presented so far. Emilio Izaguirre, brought to Scotland from the Honduran league, is already the reported subject of interest from Manchester United. Beram Kayal, meanwhile, has been another notable success since his capture from Maccabi Haifa. No one is pretending that Celtic have developed these players from youth, but the Parkhead side hope to give them the stage to go on and prove themselves fit to be described as top rank.

The trick is to know when to cut the club's losses with players who are underperforming, while also recognising when the time is right to sell on others who, while clearly able to contribute on the pitch, can command a large fee. The summer sale of Aiden McGeady to Spartak Moscow for 9.5 million is one such instance.

"What we recognised a number of years ago is that you could not buy in the top players from the EPL (English Premier League] any longer due to the inflation there," said Lawwell. "Therefore we have to create value by investing in scouting, sports science, academy and other technical areas. This is in order to identify these kids such as the Izaguirres and Kayals and bring them here in order to make them better and give them a platform.

"Hopefully they then go on and win things with Celtic, but at the end of the day we want to create Champions League players," he added."If through this process they want to move on and it is right for them to move on then we would have to do that, but, most importantly, we would then reinvest the money in the squad and find the next up and coming stars to take Celtic as far as they possibly can."

It must also be about helping reduce Celtic's debt, which was yesterday revealed, in the club's interim accounts for six months to 31 December, to stand at just over 9 million. Lawwell described the figure as one Celtic remain "comfortable" with. "Our facilities are way way beyond what we would ever borrow," he added. "It gives us huge headroom. We never say to ourselves: 'look, that is the debt target'."

What are described by chairman John Reid as a "disappointing" set of results were not helped by the severe winter weather. Celtic saw one match, against Kilmarnock, postponed while other home fixtures against Dundee United and Inverness Caledonian Thistle were staged in inhospitable conditions. "Over Christmas we had a particularly intense run at home when it was down to minus 10 and minus 11," he said. "You have to be playing very attractive football to get people out in those temperatures."

Had the side been playing as fluently as they are now, then even the uncommited might have been tempted to stray outdoors. Battles with the SFA are in the past, although Reid did use his chairman's notes to aim a shot at the game's governing body, and the "spectacle" of last autumn. "We are very satisfied with the changes that have taken place so far and we look forward to (SFA chief executive] Stewart Regan's review and his reforms. We are encouraged by Stewart's appointment," commented Lawwell. "We have a lot of confidence in him."

Lawwell, however, is pleased most of all by the peformances being produced on the pitch by Celtic. "I am really excited about the young management team we have and the young team that we have," he said. "It's a difficult time for the game but our financial model seems to be working."