Brian Wilson has spoken about his desire to strengthen the Celtic squad.
That is the Interim Chairman, a Non Executive Director since 2026 who has nodded through a number of disastrous decisions without raising his voice.
In the last few years Celtic have squandered millions through Mark Lawwell, Paul Tisdale, Wilfried Nancy and others.
Not once has there been criticism from Wilson and his free-loading boardroom chums.
The CEO responsible for those appointments remains in place. He drains £17,000 a week from the club and hasn’t been heard of since December.
In an unexpected turn of events Michael Nicholson twice spoke to Celtic TV to share his enthusiasm and exciting plans to back Nancy.
After 33 horrific days involving six defeats and two wins the Frenchman was sacked. He should never have got near the Celtic manager’s job.
How anyone could interview Nancy and think that they were Celtic material is beyond belief.
Most competent clubs would have doubts about giving Nancy a minor coaching role inside their Academy.
Nancy was allowed to crash a cup final, a Europa League campaign and almost destroyed Celtic’s SPFL title chances.
WILSON- A POLITICIAN THAT YOU CAN NEVER TRUST
At a meeting with the Celtic Fans Collective on February 18 Wilson defended the process that led to appointing the seventh best coach in the Eastern Conference of the MLS.
On Thursday Celtic announced the appointment of Martin O’Neill as permanent manager.
There was no mention of his assistants. Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham have been given take it or leave it low-ball offers.
With the announcement rushed out on Thursday Celtic had no in-house interview with their ‘new’ manager.
Instead they turned to interim Chairman Wilson. It seems that the CEO doesn’t share the same excitement levels that he had with Nancy for O’Neill.
Asked if the club was prepared to give Martin the backing that he needs, Wilson said:
Absolutely, and that is very much part of the basis on which he’s wanted to come back, and we’ve wanted him to come back.
It’s going to be a very active next few weeks, and we must come out of it with a stronger squad.
It’s worth mentioning maybe for all the criticisms last year, that eight of our players are at the World Cup.
We have a lot of very, very good players, so we want to not only retain that strength, but also to build on it.
RETAIN?
Celtic will be doing everything possible to sell Daizen Maeda, Arne Engels and Reo Hatate for starters.
Selling Alistair Johnston would be welcomed in the boardroom after a season in which the defender started just 10 matches.
ACTIVE?
Yes, the rush to sell players to boost the bank balance.
Like last season when Nicolas Kuhn was sold to Como at the start of July with no attempt made at signing a replacement.
Nicholson failed to sell Maeda last summer. He was panicked in January into rejecting Nottingham Forest’s offer for Engels. That won’t happen again. Selling Maeda and Engels nice and early is Wilson’s definition of being active.
THE LAWWELL TEMPLATE
Finishing the transfer window with a stronger squad than at the start was a favourite line of Peter Lawwell.
Usually it skipped around the bit about being knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers. Followed by two over-priced signings close to deadline day plus one player arriving on loan that can’t get near a game in the EPL.
It is 21 days since O’Neill guided Celtic to victory in the Scottish Cup Final.
In 14 days Celtic begin pre-season training. The first friendly is against Shelbourne on July 9. The SPFL season starts on August 1/2 with a Champions League Play Off on August 18/19 and 25/26.
WILSON WASTES TIME ON THE CELTIC REBUILD
Wasting three weeks isn’t a good look. In three weeks time Celtic will be preparing for their first friendly. Ideally you have 22 first team players ready to get 45 minutes playing time.
Wilson, Nicholson and their colleagues are totally detached from the reality of where Celtic are.
Over two transfer windows in season 2025/26 Celtic signed 17 players.
Only Kieran Tierney and Ben Nygren are first team starters. O’Neill bombed out the majority of them. Summer signings Shin Yamada, Hayato Inamura and Jahmai Simpson-Pusey were bombed out in January. Royal Antwerp didn’t want Michel-Ange Balikwisha back on loan.
Kasper Schmeichel has retired but you won’t read about that on any official Celtic channel.
Kelechi Iheanacho and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain are out of contract. Going by the treatment of Maloney and Fotheringham the Ox and Iheanacho can expect to be offered significant pay cuts.
Celtic have had at least five months to prepare for what should be a monumental summer. Instead the board has been congratulating themselves on beating Hearts to the SPFL title.
The Recruitment Team that has been disastrous over the last three windows remains in place.
Nicholson and McKay remain as the transfer negotiators, waiting on approval from a distant golf course.
Wilson’s transfer promises are as genuine as his calls for unity across the club. In his interest only.
O’Neill knows exactly what to expect over the transfer months.
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