Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Kilmarnock v Celtic - Rugby Park, Kilmarnock, Scotland, Britain - April 16, 2023 Celtic non-executive Chairman Peter Lawwell in the stands before the match REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
There are a few names online that are always worth reading when it comes to matters Celtic, usually twice a year Critical Bill shares his views on how the club is operating.
There are two distinct areas that CB covers, naturally the footballing side while the business workings of the club also comes in for review and analysis. His Celtic Underground articles were outstanding, these days they are behind a Substack paywall.
Heading up both of those areas at Celtic. well certainly in job title and salary is Michael Nicholson, the elusive CEO who has made one media appearance since slipping in to replace Dom McKay in September 2021. Initially on a temporary basis before he was rubber stamped into the job Peter Lawwell had been grooming him for.
Nicholson’s only media appearance was in June 2023 when Brendan Rodgers was appointed as manager, apart from a bad joke about arriving in Mallorca wearing a sombrero he claimed that the ambitions of Celtic were to be world class in everything that they do.
That should be a fairly short list for a club with two Supporter Liaison Officers for 50,000 Season Ticket holders and several thousand on a Waiting List, no working Stadium Wi-Fi, no Season Ticket Exchange Scheme, no club Museum, a Youth Academy that has produced one first team player in a decade and with the structure of the Main Stand built in 1929, upgraded internally in 1971 and given a makeover in 1987. Untouched in almost 40 years.
If you benchmark yourself against your 12-year-old city business partners there is no doubting that Celtic are world class in almost everything that they do. There is other competition however, from clubs like Brugge, Porto, PSV Eindhoven and others who manage to impact in Europe fairly regularly despite being outside the five richest leagues.
From “Critical Bill” on @celticrumours substack.
The CEO lacks the mindset and ambition to drive the club forward. pic.twitter.com/iCnhr9GiuR
— 20 Minute Tims (@20MinuteTims) February 6, 2025
Nicholson is a reluctant CEO, taking a back seat is his natural reaction rather than providing leadership. Not many companies switch from an accountant CEO to a ‘top sports lawyer’ with just a 71 day break to give the impression of modernisation.
Being a CEO requires different skills, a flicker of ambition and a drive to achieve rather than continuing to arrange the office furniture the same way as it always has been.
It also requires a Contact Book that is filled with names and numbers outwith the pages headed D and L.
Critically for fans you have to get deals done, you need to buy and sell on your feet and understand the demands of football management.
Succession planning is everything at a club like Celtic. Other than Alistair Johnston replacing Josip Juranovic there are no examples of that at Celtic.
A month ago Kyogo Furuhashi was a model professional, from Brendan Rodgers and a succession of leaks it seems that the striker was deeply unhappy for months and agitating for a move, even though he was trusted to start the Champions League tie at home to YB Bern.
Nicholson knew all this and was tasked with finding a replacement striker during January. A good CEO would have signed a better striker, an improvement, Nicholson failed to find a single striker despite worldwide access to data.
Across Europe, into South Korea, Japan and Australia he was unable to sign up a striker despite the promptings of his manager.
Thousands of fans are quite content with Nicholson and how the club is run. Look at the state of the mob across the city is the favoured reply, a 6-0 win over Dundee is being used to justify the failure to sign a striker, to deliberately weaken the squad two weeks before a Champions League knock out.
Dundee are the 10th best team in Scotland, on Saturday they lost 6-0 at home to Hearts, a win against the Dens Park side isn’t much of a achievement.
From conversations with people involved in transfers everyone inside football knows that Nicholson isn’t the decision maker when it comes to Celtic’s transfer business, he has an experienced friend that he is in regular contact with.
Nothing moves swiftly, whatever is on offer from Celtic can be relayed elsewhere to see if it can be bettered. Plan B is unknown never mind C, D or E.
When Nicholson has a target it is hit or miss. During the summer Norwich and Augsburg knew that Celtic had no-one else in mind, they said no repeatedly, Celtic edged up their offers to the stage that £20m was spent on two players. Had the club had alternatives in mind a significant saving could have been made.
Those fees allowed the club Chairman to boast about beating their record transfer fee twice in a month, that is the same sort of thinking that had him boasting about Albian Ajeti and Vasilis Barkas in 2020.
Almost certainly Celtic will win the SPFL Premiership title this season, their only realistic domestic rivals have lost £100m over the last decade winning three trophies, without doubt Celtic are an example of business efficiency in comparison.
In August there will be a Champions League Play Off to reach the group stage that can generate £40m of income. The names of Cluj, Maribor, Malmo, Ferencvaros, AEK Athens and Midtjylland are still fresh in the mind, hopefully Nicholson’s luck stays in and Celtic Park is closed on Thursday nights.
The squad building for next season starts in January, after selling Kyogo the Celtic manager is on record as saying that his squad is weaker. Halfway through the manager’s three year contract Nicholson is playing a high risk game.
Yet when Ange was in charge, business was done sharp and we were decisive.
Wonder what’s changed. Oh aye, Lawwell is back and still pulling the strings.
— ? ??????? (@Dilly1967) February 6, 2025
it’s the same issues, window after window. All they are doing is pushing Rodgers out the door, we had a great chance to push on and improve the squad, but as usual, they refuse to back the manager. I don’t believe they are incompetent, it’s a choice that’s been made by the board
— Socbhoy (@socbhoy) February 6, 2025
He seemed to be doing a great job and had plenty of praise as a CEO until Lawwell returned? aye but it’s Nicholson ??? over 20 years of Lawwell stopping the club getting anywhere near its potential, just enough FC, an ancient board with no ambition, Dom McKay scared them.
— Griff ??????? #WeWelcomeTheChase 119 (@MildooWolf) February 7, 2025
He’s a lawyer. Not a CEO
— Martin W (@mwillmott68) February 6, 2025
Appointed without interview. Amateur doesn’t do justice to describing how Celtic is run.
— A J N ??????????? (@AJN1967) February 6, 2025
This will be the case with any CEO working at Celtic while lawells there. Nicholson is going into these meetings knowing he’s can’t ok anything without lawells say so. He can’t sit in these meetings and conclude these deals in a quick manner because he’s lawells puppet.
— DANNYBHOY88 (@Danielh15215783) February 6, 2025
He didn’t want the job. He turned it down numerous times. Even after Mckay left he STILL rurned down the job. DD persuaded him with a ridiculous salary and the promise he could remain behind the scenes. He is a good guy and genuine Celtic fan. He is not a CEO for a modern club.
— themadmonk (@themadmonk14) February 6, 2025
Should Michael Nicholson lead Celtic's Summer 2025 Transfer Window business?
Yes, he has priceless experience, the only man for the job
No, never again, his failings are piling higher and higher
Apart from Johnston only Luis Palma, Yang Hyun-jun and Tomoki Iwata of the 14 players signed by Lawwell Jnr started more than 10 first team matches. Palma, Marco Tilio, Odin Thiago Holm and Gus Lagerbielke are all out on loan.
LIEWELL pulls the strings on transfers,
Look at that photo of those 2 CHISLERS,Arthur Daley and Del Trotter laughing all the way to the bank.
The root cause of a lot of the club’s major issues is around recruitment?
Unsatisfactory player recruitment, and insular/parochial senior management recruitment.
Many are ‘disappointed’ with Nicholson, his lack of visibility and lack of change at the
club is perhaps due to a deeply ingrained culture?
The club needs fresh ideas and new people to shake things up – continuously –
but it doesn’t look like the major shareholders have the appetite for that?
It does beg the question though: if Dom McKay was still CEO, where would we be now…?
Thing is he shouldnt be involved (neither should the board) in transfers in the first place .. What should happen (and does at many clubs) is this .. the board allocates a budget that the manager/director of football can then use as they see fit … any sales would then allow them to exceed this budget if necessary by x% ( say for instance 40% with the remaining 60% going to the Club for running costs etc) In this way the board and CEO are taken out of the firing line and it is the Football department making Football decisions.
As I don´t want a first team manager deciding what colour the walls should be in the boardroom , or what the cost of pies should be (as extreme examples) I don´t want a CEO or board deciding that a full back that cuts inside is worth more than one that goes on the overlap! In other words a successful WORLD CLASS club has people in roles that they understand…