Celtic AGM 2024- Michael Clueless Nicholson Part 2

You would imagine that as CEO of a football club you’d be fairly on the ball with the key matters covering the three main teams.

Every first team match Michael Nicholson rolls up, visits the Directors Room, watches from the Directors Box and enjoys some decent hospitality, he rarely misses a first team match.

The women’s team is more of a chore but internally he should be well aware of what is going on, if they play a match at Celtic Park or Hampden he can watch from his usual vantage points.

Somewhere in the middle of these two teams is the Celtic B side, playing in the Lowland League for the fourth season running with players almost exclusively drawn from the Academy which sees the best prospects in a blended environment splitting their time between the Training Centre at Lennoxtown and St Ninian’s School in Kirkintilloch.

Started in 2010 it was intended to increase the supply of first team ready players, coming after the Academy had provided Aiden McGeady, Shaun Maloney, Stephen McManus, Darren O’Dea, Craig Beattie and Ross Wallace.

James Forrest, Callum McGregor and Kieran Tierney maintained the supply but since Tierney’s breakthrough in 2015 no first team regulars have emerged although there are a few useful squad players that tick an awkward box demanded by UEFA.

You would imagine that the breakdown of the Academy would be a serious concern for the CEO, if only to help bring in the sort of transfer fees that Tierney and McGeady generated.

Instead it seems that Nicholson is completely in the dark about the failings of the Academy, asked at the AGM to name the last Academy player to start a competitive match he gave his trademark smirk, backed off and deflected the question to Brendan Rodgers.

Nicholson has been employed by Celtic since 2013, he has been CEO since September 2021 but can’t recall a single Academy player starting a first team match.

His reaction to the question and deflection spoke volumes. Passing the question to Rodgers sums up the attitude of the CEO. While he was watching Owen Moffat line up against St Mirren in December 2021 Rodgers was managing Leicester City.

While Nicholson was watching the young winger get substituted after 62 minutes Rodgers was otherwise occupied, helping Leicester City to a 3-3 draw at Anfield against one of his former clubs.

Joe McHugh – When was the last youth player to start a first team game.

MN asks BR to answer.

BR – I was 15yrs at youth development. I have a half decent idea of what needed. Callum, James, Tony set the culture.

#ticagm

— Celticunderground (@celticrumours) November 22, 2024

Covering the AGM, Football Scotland reported:

Q11: On youth development, last season, Montrose put Celtic out of the SFA Youth Cup. This season, Morton put Celtic out of the SFA Youth Cup. Are there any lessons being learned by that?

Michael Nicholson: So if I look at it as a generality, we’re always looking to take forward standards at Celtic right across the board. And as we mentioned, the videos of Brendan spoke about it too., that includes from the academy all the way up. I think what you’re referring to is two results involving a development team of Celtic, the B team, where…

Peter Lawwell: We get the point. Thanks for your questions. Always a pleasure.

Brendan Rodgers: Joe, I’m aware of the history of young players at the club and bringing in Paul Tisdale is a move that would help us fast-track kids. For me, that was my life before I was a manager, I was 15 years in youth development. If you look through my career and history as a coach, you’ll see the number of young players I’ve put into first team level at 16 years of age through to 21s.

So I would like to think I’ve got a half-decent idea around youth development. But it’s also a big focus of mine because I know that the guys that we have here, Callum McGregor, James Forrest, Stephen Welsh and Anthony Ralston; these are the guys that create the culture and help create that. So there’s nobody who wants to do that more than me and that’s up to us in football, in strategy, to ensure that we get these players through.

The points you’re making absolutely about Montrose and Morton, yeah when you’re playing against a big team that shouldn’t happen but it does.

Sometimes it happens. I was Chelsea youth coach and we lost to Colchester in the Youth Cup and we’d spent a fortune. But a lot of the players that played for Chelsea went on and had really, really good careers and won the Champions League. So it happens. But I certainly get your point from a supporter that we want to see more youth players in the system and that’s something that we’ll hopefully look to do over the coming years.

Q11: Do you think that the St. Ninian’s project and playing in the Lowlands League is advancing the development of young players? It looks a complete disaster.

Again Rodgers stepped in for a question to the CEO, knowing the deflection drill of these events I stayed at the Mic, waited for Rodgers to finish his comments then told Nicholson that the answer was Owen Moffat, away to St Mirren in December 2021. The winger was substituted after 62 minutes and never played another competitive match for Celtic.

After four years in the Lowland League the Celtic Academy/B team is further away than ever from producing a first team player.

There may be someone that somehow starts a competitive game due to unexpected circumstances but with Nicholson showing little more than token interest in the failings of the Academy there is no chance of another McGregor or Forrest emerging in the next decade.