After 10 relatively quiet days Michael Nicholson has struck again with another own goal aimed at antagonising the Celtic support.
On the evening of Friday September 5 The Sun published serious criticism of Brendan Rodgers delivered by a source close to senior figures inside Celtic.
Nicholson hasn’t taken any action.
The next night Celtic released a statement that stunned supporters. The content was horrific, inaccurate and read like Chat GPT trying to make sense of a rambling sarcastic answer to a question by Peter Lawwell at the AGM.
Nicholson hasn’t taken any action.
GREEN BRIGADE
A statement led by the Green Brigade had already gathered support, following that weekend of madness it snowballed. Within a week a public meeting had been held followed by 75% of the Celtic support delaying their entry into the match at Kilmarnock until the 12th minute.
Nicholson looked very uncomfortable in his cushioned seat.
In terms of leadership and decision making Nicholson had been shown up for the lightweight that he is. Four years in the job and his strengths remain a mystery, presuming that he has any.
It has been suggested that Celtic have brought in a proper PR company to try and halt the bad publicity being generated under the leadership of Ian Jamieson. It is fair to say that Celtic communications aren’t world class.
LORD HAUGHEY
Out of nowhere Lord Haughey was placed on Go Radio on Wednesday to discuss Celtic issues. Since he was involved as a Director in the mid-nineties he has held positions with Livingston and Queens Park.
While having a better grasp of the emotions of the Celtic support than the current directors Haughey accepted an Order of the British Empire award in 2003 then became a Lord in 2013.
Tuning in to Go Radio yesterday the Daily Record reported Haughey saying:
It looks like peace is breaking out. I saw Brendan’s last press comments were good and it looks as if there’s a bit of healing,
That is a truly bizarre conclusion to take from Friday’s blockbuster media conference, Rodgers praised three Executives and said nothing about the Celtic Chairman, there was however a nod and a wink that said almost as much as any of the words used during the 32 minute media conference.
It took Celtic three hours to upload the video, they realised that they couldn’t keep it in-house with clips and transcripts surfacing across social media.
SPOILED FANS!
Getting to the main point, reminding entitled fans how lucky they are to be dominant in a set up where the closest challengers are a 13-year-old basket case Lord Haughey added:
Everybody is disappointed to go out of the Champions League and in a couple of the performances but overall, if you think about the 30 years before that and all the hard times, we’ve actually been spoilt the last 15 years or so.
I would just say that Dermot and his involvement with the club has put us where we are. Let’s back off a wee bit and keep supporting the team.
Dermot was on the board in April 1997 when a Celtic statement claimed that Haughey had resigned, a claim that he denied but three years after being part of Fergus McCann’s takeover he was removed from the Celtic board.
In the last 15 years or so Celtic have only twice won more than one Champions League matches in a season. Between October 2013 and December 2023 Celtic failed to win a home match in the Champions League. During that time Club Brugge with a capacity of 29,000 have been regulars in the knock-out stage.
EUROPEAN FAILURES
With far lesser resources Maribor, Malmo, AEK Athens, Cluj, Ferencvaros, Midtjylland and Kairat Almaty have all knocked Celtic out of Champions League qualifiers.
Overall each of those defeats has cost the club around £20m directly from UEFA, in season 2018/19 after losing out to AEK Athens CEO Peter Lawwell was paid £3.5m on turnover of £83m.
Across the same period, stretching back until 1998 there has been no significant work carried out at Celtic Park.
Between 1994 and 1998 with turnover around £35m Fergus McCann build three stands with a capacity of 52,000.
There is no hot water outside of the hospitality areas in the South Stand, a structure built on foundations laid in 1929.
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY
With a bank balance hovering around £100m and turnover of £150m Nicholson has no plans to improve the stadium. Claims of a Celtic Hotel and Museum have been confirmed as moonbeams.
A significant investment has been made on a training facility at Barrowfield, the last comment from the club was that it would opening in November 2024.
Nicholson is currently sitting on the 2025 Annual Report trying to work out the least damaging time to confirm the news that the Balance Sheet rather than the Team Sheet is his priority for Celtic.
Given his recent run of decision making whenever the current CEO chooses to publish the Annual Report is bound to be swamped by another backlash against the club leaders.
NOTE: Haughey has been exceptionally generous to a number of former players who have fallen on hard times, being a strong supporter to the Lisbon Lions.
NOTE 2 Haughey has returned to Go Radio tonight and been much more critical of the way that the club is run with an emphasis on the horrendous recruitment.
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