It takes a special effort to break three promises inside 10 weeks. Celtic Chairman Brian Wilson managed that during an interview with Gerry McCulloch at the end of April.
Wilson is of course a lifelong politician. A former Cabinet colleague of Peter Mandelson.
At the time of the interview Celtic were involved in a three way battle for the SPFL Premiership title despite losing eight matches.
Four of those defeats came during Wilfried Nancy’s disastrous 33 days in charge.
Chairman Lawwell bailed out while the hopeless Frenchman was in the manager’s office.
On January 1 Wilson stepped up to the Chairman’s salary on an interim basis. He is still there.
It seems that his key task is to produce a monthly interview with Gerry McCulloch to keep the anti-establishment fans at arms length.
With all the sincerity of a Labour MP Wilson would use the interview to call for unity. Reality is that he just wanted fans back spending money at pre Not Another Penny more levels.
Of course the Directors shared the concerns of the support. They are all working really really hard to improve things. Mistakes have been made but have been acknowledged. After all the Directors are all Celtic fans.
CELTIC- MOST CERTAINLY A CLUB LIKE NO OTHER
Wilson is slightly less wooden than Michael Nicholson.
But the sentiment is the same. Utter contempt while patronising the customers. Same again until next month.
On 30 April Wilson went a little further. With his words, certainly not his actions. Knocking out those weekly opinion pieces for The Scotsman is his real passion in life. That and avoiding the truth.
Chairman Wilson laid it on thick in his April message. To the surprise of no-one he has failed to deliver on every count.
https://youtu.be/X0Ix7MTTJME
1 minute 40 seconds
WILSON ON FAN ENGAGEMENT
When I came into this, we made that commitment that we were going to engage with supporters’ groups. We were going to talk to everybody, we have done that. We have listened and we have taken on board an awful lot of what was said. Some of that has started to be implemented.
For instance, we are about to appoint a new head of supporter engagement, which is a new post. That will be part of a much more structured approach to engagement where we committed to creating a link between the club and supporters in a much more structured way.
3 minutes 30 seconds
THE BOARDROOM REFRESH
The refreshment of the board was talked about. Peter resigned and Tom Allison retired. There is work to be done, and is being done, on the refreshment of the board. Everything we have talked about we are working on delivering and we will deliver.
4 minutes
THE BIG SUMMER RECRUITMENT DRIVE
It is going to be a big summer. Everyone, I hope and expect, has learned lessons from some things which influenced this season. Therefore, everyone is up for that challenge and the work is going on.
The immediate focus is on getting to the end of this season in the best possible place, but thereafter there is a huge effort assured in the summer so that we face next season in the strongest possible position.
Everything else is secondary to what happens on the park and therefore we have to have the best possible chance going into next season based on what transpires over the summer. That is the absolute commitment to supporters.
Eighty-two days on from that interview Celtic haven’t delivered on any of those promises.
- No Fan Engagement Officer has been appointed, or advertised for.
- The Boardroom refresh has consisted of polishing the Coronation Cup
- The big summer recruitment drive has resulted in losing Kelechi Iheanacho, Marcelo Saracchi and Kasper Schmeichel. Only Camilo Duran has joined.
In-between times Michael Nicholson admitted that he can’t cope with agents. Which partly explains the lack of arrivals. Having a CEO of five years standing with that problem is a serious issue. Typical of how Celtic misfunctions.
When Wilson gave that interview Celtic’s SPFL fate was wide open. Tonight runners-up Hearts play in the Second Qualifying Round of the Champions League. Celtic were five minutes away from that fate.
And yet there is no sign of urgency from anyone inside the club. Next season’s European action will start in mid-July.
SUMMER 2026 AS CELTIC ALLOWS TIME TO SLIP AWAY
Wilson, Nicholson and O’Neill met with fans in Cork on July 4. Nicholson and Wilson skipped attending the draw against Middlesbrough on Saturday.
Successive landmarks have been missed.
No new signings were in place for the first day of pre-season training. Or the opening friendly against Shelbourne on July 7.
Duran signed on July 10. He was first linked with Celtic on June 19.
It is looking unlikely that any new signing will feature against AC Milan. And with that pre-season is over.
Nicholson has had no problem dealing with agents to help move on Shin Yamada and Maik Nawrocki.
Wilson and his broken promises are in clear view of the Celtic support.
Over the weekend the Supporters Association, Trust and Green Brigade all published highly critical statements.
At the end of last season Wilson was reluctantly forced to lift the suspension of the Green Brigade.
August is again going to be a telling month for the team and the relationship fans have with the board.
Only a Labour politician would think that he can bluff his way through another season like last. Wilson is a Labour politician.
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