West Bromwich Albion decided to play tough with Celtic yesterday over the tug-of-war for Tony Mowbray, whom Celtic had hoped to have in place tomorrow as Gordon Strachan’s successor as manager.
Jeremy Peace, the West Brom chairman, had already intimated his pique at Celtic’s brazen tapping of their manager, but yesterday the Albion chairman took things farther, emerging from his office with his verbal handbag flying in the direction of the Celtic Park club and, in particular, at Peter Lawwell, the Celtic chief executive.
It now seems a fait accompli that Mowbray will be unveiled in Glasgow this week, but according to Peace it won’t happen before West Brom extract their pound of flesh from Celtic in compensation. Moreover, Peace said yesterday, the amount of compensation would be set by Albion and would be “non-negotiable” in their discussions with Celtic.
Some of Peace’s frustration stemmed from the fact that, for the first time yesterday, despite everybody knowing that Mowbray and Celtic were talking, Lawwell made official contact with The Hawthorns club. Celtic have used the time-honoured go-between in sounding out Mowbray over the past seven days and, in truth, could have the book thrown at them if some of football’s slightly more quaint laws were ever adhered to.
Advertisement
“After two weeks of speculation I have finally received a call from the Celtic chief executive, Peter Lawwell, requesting permission to speak to Tony,” Peace said. “I made it absolutely clear that Celtic’s approach was not welcome, because we have an ongoing project at Albion, in which Tony is an integral part.
“We inserted a compensation fee when Tony signed a new contract 16 months ago to ensure the club would be suitably recompensed in the event of any other club seeking his services. Most people would regard it as a fair figure. It was inserted in the contract in good faith and is non-negotiable, because we don’t want to lose our manager.”
It is believed West Brom want at least £2.5million in compensation for the loss of Mowbray and his assistant, Peter Grant, though Celtic have argued in private that the figure should be much nearer £1million, due to an alleged “get-out” clause in Mowbray’s contract. Peace, however, insisted that if Celtic don’t meet their asking price for their manager, then Mowbray will be going nowhere.
“Celtic have been made aware of the compensation figure, and if they agree to pay this, only then will I speak to Tony to get his thoughts on the situation,” Peace said. “Until and unless that happens, then it is business as usual as we plan for a very important season ahead of us.”
Perhaps a mite over optimistically, Peace added: “We hope this is the end of the matter, as we do not need any further, unwelcome distractions from the job in hand.” But there is no chance of Celtic letting the matter rest there.
Advertisement
The Celtic Park club already have internal staff on standby for a press conference, where they hope a salivating Scottish media will finally be put out of their misery and actually see Mowbray in the flesh at Celtic Park. It now looks like this will not happen until tomorrow or Thursday at the earliest.
Peace, a man with whom Mowbray has not had the easiest of relations, nonetheless admitted that he would be devastated to see him leave for Glasgow. “Tony’s style of play is a key factor in that project, and the supporters have very much bought into it,” the West Brom chairman said. “You could see that by the terrific reception the fans gave Tony and the players after our final home game against Liverpool. It is also reflected by the fact we have already sold more than 16,000 season tickets for next season.”