PETER Lawwell has stated Celtic will, despite those supporters who would like their club to be more vocal when it comes to certain matters regarding Rangers, concentrate on the many challenges they currently face themselves.

Given the number of concerns and complaints which shareholders raised about the performance of the team on the park and the club off it at their AGM at Parkhead yesterday, that seems an entirely sensible policy.

Having won the League Cup and Premiership double last season and progressed through to the knockout rounds of the Europa League under their new manager Ronny Deila, last season was a memorable one.

“That is a great achievement for anyone in their first year,” said Lawwell, the Celtic chief executive. “In fact, we probably should have won the Treble. If it wasn’t for that decision at Hampden (in the Scottish Cup semi-final against Invernness Caledonian Thistle) who knows what would have happened?”

Celtic’s continued rude good financial health, despite the absence of their traditional city rivals as well as Hearts and Hibs from the top flight of Scottish football last term, is also impressive in this difficult climate.

“Last year we made a loss,” said Lawwell. “But that was expected. We are still performing extremely well financially. We have no bank debt and we are stable. We have a good foundation to take on challenges going forward.”

But is everyone happy? Not a chance. As is invariably the case on such occasions at a club of such a size, there were of gripes and groans aplenty. Nobody at Celtic will be pausing to reflect upon their accomplishments. The demands are relentless.

The continuing unwillingness of the Celtic directors for the Parkhead club to become a living wage employer, a resolution which directors urged those in attendance to vote against and which was defeated by a massive majority after going to a poll, prompted much heated debate.

The re-election of Lord Livingston, the Conservative peer who faced calls for his removal after voting in favour of cutting tax credits in the House of Lords last month, as a non-executive director also resulted in some angry exchanges between the floor and the top table. Livingston was voted in comfortably.

Many less weighty issues were aired too. One supporter bemoaned the fact that he “smelt like an Arbroath kipper” when he came out of the toilets on match days due to fans, who are currently prevented from leaving the ground to smoke, lighting up.

So the debate about whether Rangers should be stripped of the titles and trophies they won between 2001 and 2010 when the Ibrox club was using EBTs to help pay their players is not one anyone appears willing or able to become heavily embroiled in.

“We put a statement out which made clear our point of view,” said Lawwell when asked about the Court of Session ruling in favour of HMRC in the second appeal into the outcome of the so-called “Big Tax Case” earlier this month. “It is an issue for the court of law and football governing bodies. I think we made our position very, very clear.

“But we as a club are not defined by any other club, we are not dependent on any other club. We are Celtic and I think we should be focused on our own affairs and trying to maximise the potential and opportunities of this magnificent football club.”

The failure of Celtic to reach the group stages of the Champions League for the second season running and their poor showings in the Europa League this term have led many supporters to once again question their business plan – signing young players with potential, developing them and then selling them for a substantial profit.

However, Lawwell underlined that the club would persevere with their signing policy regardless - and lavished praise on those responsible for both nurturing home-grown talent and bringing in foreign players with significant residual value.

“I can understand the criticism,” he said. “But players who come to Celtic and do well and attract clubs from the Premier League will move. It is maybe a disappointing circumstance, but it is true.

“Our scouting and our development people should take a lot of credit for identifying the talented players we have had here that have moved on. They have been found, they have come here and developed, have been put out at Celtic Park on the stage there and have come on and attracted interest down south.

“The salaries they can get down there are far greater than anything we can afford. Therefore you can understand that. Our challenge is to recognise that and if a player does want to go we need to maximise the transfer value and use that money to reinvest back into the team. That, again, is a fundamental challenge to us.

“We need to keep that pipeline of talent. When you lose a Virgil van Dijk you need to replace him with the right quality which takes time. You need to put them in the team, develop them and then hopefully they can perform at that level.”

The prospect of Celtic joining the English Premier League was, to widespread groaning and much rolling of eyes, inevitably brought up. The elderly gentleman who did so, though, had a novel suggestion about how something which a long line of officials have been unable to facilitate can be achieved.

“I’ve got an idea,” he said. “I’ve retired and I’ve got plenty time. If you stick some money in a brown envelope I’ll go to Switzerland and I guarantee you we’ll be in the English league next year.”

“It seems to work in some quarters,” replied Lawwell.