PAISLEY, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 25: Celtic CEO Michael Nicholson during a William Hill Premiership match between St Mirren and Celtic at the SMiSA Stadium, on August 25, 2024, in Paisley, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Michael Nicholson appears to have run out of excuses as he explains Celtic’s multiple failings in the transfer market.
On September 6 the club released a horrific 1030 word statement deflecting from their failings in the transfer market, Strangely, to the shock of many fans Financial Sustainability Regulations were highlighted.
Strangely when the club published their Annual Report there was no mention of FSR. There were of course plenty of other excuses to defect from in-house failings.
Beating Kairat Almaty wasn’t the biggest of asks, especially for the self declared best run club in European football.
Nicholson generates HMRC bill
Last night Nicholson and his side-kick Chris McKay met with more than 20 supporter representatives to fob them off. It seems to have backfired with the resolve of the Collective strengthened.
Plunging crowds, merchandise sales and an alarming dip in performances would suggest that Celtic aren’t brilliantly run.
However in Nicholson’s world the only issue that matters is the Balance Sheet and the profits generated out of supporters.
Celtic are so good at that that they paid HMRC £11.75m in Corporation Tax.
Last night Nicholson came up with a new excuse for his failure to replace first team regulars.
At 2pm today the Celtic Fans Collective came up with an outline of how the meeting went. The agreed minutes could take a while before surfacing.
Summary of Celtic Meeting (06/10/2025) pic.twitter.com/TeuClXdMJB
— Celtic Fans Collective (@CFC_Collective) October 7, 2025
Overall, the Club believes the football strategy is working and pointed to participation in European competition as evidence of its success.
Similarly, the Club defended its transfer strategy citing different factors for transfer activity being difficult (for example tax laws in different European countries) while pointing to examples which they believe is evidence of the strategy working.
With Nicholson and McKay being paid a combined figure of £1.5m in the year to June 2024 they really should be aware of every tax issue in Europe.
Different tax laws don’t seem to hinder other clubs with far less resources enjoying success.
Teams from Cypris, Kazakhstan, Denmark and Belgium are enjoying Champions League football this season. Unlike Celtic.
Club Brugge play out of a stadium with a capacity of just 29,500 but have no tax issues. During the last window they signed players from Italy, France, Germany and Holland in time to be ready for two rounds of Champions League qualifiers.
The full agreed minutes from the meeting have still to be published. Following the backlash to the leaked version late on Monday night Celtic are probably trying to backtrack on a number of issues to portray themselves in a better light.
The way forward for Nicholson
According to the leak the only area that the club needs to improve in is communications and fan engagement. Basically those issues are one and the same.
Following three matches of protest the board moved to arrange last night’s meeting. That seemed like an attempt to engage and compromise but the reality appears far different.
The meeting seems to have been used as a platform to put fans in their place by restating that Celtic are a well run club!
Effectively there are no areas of the club’s operations that need overhauled. Brendan Rodgers may disagree.
In the final few months of his contract it would be a major shock if the Irishman signed a new deal for more of the same.
The Collective now has the best part of a fortnight to plan their next moves with the Sky Sports coverage of the match away to Dundee. That match on October 19 seems the obvious platform to push the demands for change.
Celtic’s full accounts should be published in the next fortnight giving a breakdown of executive pay levels.
That and a date for what promises to be a very lively AGM at some stage in late November will soon create the headlines.
The Trinity Tims podcast will be live tonight at 6.30pm.
Should the Celtic Fans Collective call for a full boycott of merchandise?
No, we must keep their income flowing
Yes, money is all that they understand
I posted a mini novella on the previous article about this but more succinctly, yes, you’re right in that the meeting has happened and some insight gained. And even if it seems they’ve ticked a box, or some fans feel perhaps the meeting shouldn’t have been agreed – Know thine enemy.
Forewarned is forearmed; as fans, we know what their ‘public’ position is now. And that should make it clearer on how to deal with them – keep hitting them in the one place they seem to feel pain or notice, their silk lined pockets. HH
“…transfer activity being difficult (for example tax laws in different European countries)…”
Yes, I’m struggling to think of that excuse being used by any other club before?
[Can only think of a few instances when players’ individual tax issues limited their club choice options: when they had received a tax-free package for less than a year – or if the player wanted the club to pay their personal tax liabilities?]
Any business with international trade activities knows how to navigate different tax regimes.
and Celtic is also a plc, not a corner shop outfit
… but it might just be run like a corner shop ?
MN was clutching at straws there,
and was unwittingly [perhaps] offensive towards the 20 attendees?
I think a cheaper option to improve the squad would be to look for some first class coaches. That way any potential in the players could be brought out.
Just sayin’
Editor: A world class CEO or even one moderately competent would sort that. Just sayin’- quiet on Celtic Thick News today?
Whit, ye mean get riddy aw they freends oh the Man and employ people that are competent. Bit, bit that will cost mair money.
Selik, wurld class in everything they do..
Best in Class for Nepotism and Honour’s level Cronyism.
The board are taking us all for fools with excuses off the tops of their heads. We need to ramp up the pressure ahead of the AGM. Do buy anything from them, inside or outside the ground and tell the sponsors it will be like this until the three amigos leave and Desmond gives us a way forward because he can stop it all this very minute. Non Execs signing off deals is another joke.