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 took Celtic out of the Champions League tonight with a humiliating 5-1 defeat away to LASK.
The Austrians, playing in Champions League qualifiers for the first time trailed 4-0 midway through the first half but hit back to win in extra-time.
A year ago Nicholson’s determination to undermine Brendan Rodgers resulted in a Champions League KO to Kairat Almaty.
This summer the £17,000 a week CEO took a different approach. With the same effect.
Knowing since January that every area of the team needed strengthened Nicholson enjoyed an extended summer holiday.
During pre-season training only Camilo Duran was added to the first team squad.
In the week of the SPFL opener Kasper Hogh was added on the back of selling Daizen Maeda to Ipswich.
Nicholson wasn’t finished.
Arne Engels was next for sale.
From the moment bids from Nottingham Forest were rejected in January it was clear that the Belgian was leaving.
A brutal assessment from Callum McGregor after Celtic’s Champions League exit.#BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/vM1qx0XKdk
— BBC Sport Scotland (@BBCSportScot) August 25, 2026
CELTIC CEO MICHAEL NICHOLSON- A SYMBOL OF UTTER FAILURE
Nicholson never bothered signing a replacement midfielder.
With Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain suspended Paolo Bernardo was sent on loan to Gornik Zabrze.
Last Wednesday some magic from Hogh, Duran and Ben Nygren gave Celtic a 3-0 lead.
Drawing 1-1 at half time Celtic collapsed in the second half losing goals in the 48th, 58th and 90th minutes.
The inevitable happened four minutes into the second half of extra-time.
Vil Sinisalo saved a penalty but Celtic were out. Dead and buried by the incompetence of Nicholson and his Board of Directors.
On Friday Celtic go into the Europa League draw with their season in tatters. By design from above.
Nicholson is sitting on a £10m profit from the transfer window to date.
He will face the wrath of 50,000 Season Ticket holders at home to Falkirk on Saturday.
In their last 10 attempts at qualifying for the Champions League Celtic have succeeded twice.
Both under Rodgers, the manager that Nicholson chased out a year ago. Each time Celtic have been seeded.
Clearly Nicholson is miles out of his depth. As are the Directors that appointed him as Dom McKay’s successor in September 2021.
LASK had a turnover of 49m euros in season 24/25. Celtic had turnover of £141m.
LASK go into the Champions League for the first time ever. Celtic face a massive rebuild under the hopeless leadership of Nicholson. Apparently he is a leading sports lawyer.
Tonight’s teams from Norway and Azerbaijan also qualified for the Champions League.
After the match Callum McGregor told Amazon Prime that Celtic were passive and scared.
And we shat the bed. Quelle surprise.
The worst capitulation I’ve ever seen
Shameful
It’s on the board , the coaching staff and the players .
They deserved to go through and their banner for the fallen Celtic fan was a touch of class
It certainly was and they deserve all the praise that comes with that banner for James.
I think it was more than the board to blame,the board must take some responsibility but surely MON and the coaching staff were reading the game,why at 4 -0 did we not just shut up shop and keep 10 men behind the ballany lesser teams in the SPFL have done that and thwarted us.That was a terrible capitulation and the manager and players must take some blame.I absolutely think our board should just fuck off but they are not on the field of play.Like last season’s fuck up against the almighty carrot,from Kazakhstan or somewhere,you can’t blame the board for that either.If we had got beaten over 2 legs yes blame the board for not helping Martin but we got lucky at home last week and scored first tonight,I’m sure a competent manager could have made 4 -0 lead count.
Spot on
Not sure who ‘Celtic’ are now as an entity , But I can tell you that Dermot Desmond will not sack Nicholson and Nicholson won’t resign .
Editor: And that is why life will be very uncomfortable for the £17,000 a week jobsworth as his lack of ability is highlighted on a daily basis.
Blame the Board for this latest shambles, same as last season. Another opportunity to bank £40m in prizemoney deliberately lost in my opinion. This board are actively trying to destroy Celtic and keep Sevco revelant. Not another penny.
I understand your anger , Nicholson is an absolute clown , but alot of that was down to the manager and the shitebags we have in the team , trusty and nygren are shitebags , we should have flooded the midfield joe ,far to open mate , but Nicholson must go
I think the way we set up was naive and the panic across the team was evident almost from the start.
Yes, AJ is out, CCV is half fit, Tierney subbed again, and we’re lightweight in midfield (still) – BUT any team from ANY league could have gone there with a better plan and got a better result.
Much as I can’t stand the Board, and arguably we recruited late – all of the blame for this sits on the tactics, and the players.
McCowan’s inconsistent league form was mightily shown up tonight but he’s not alone. Collectively all you could hear was bottle crashing all over the pitch.
A different approach might have helped, but you still need to carry a goal threat and had we taken one or two of the few good chances we created it could have been a different outcome.
It hurts, and it’s humiliating, but we just need to get on with it.
Editor: That defeat was designed by Nicholson and we know who he learned his trade from. We still have the much loved O** F*** battles to look forward to #celticfamily
For me that’s the worst result in Europe I can remember.
We were better prepared going into this tie than we have been any qualifier for quite some time, maybe not ideally but certainly better.
Add that to leading by 4 goals with basically one half of football to play and we go out, for me that’s just beyond the pale.
McCowan isny up to it, CCV is positively planetary in his movement, Reo is more likely to pass to an opposing player than his own, Duran was invisible, Nygren just did what Nygren does..an occasional no show.
But do you know what….we should still have been good enough to protect a 4 goal lead with 50mins to play.
Does anyone else think that once our goal was scored the whole mentality changed to we’ve done enough?
After watching that I’m actually glad I won’t be watching the Bayerns n PSG’s of this world dismantling us on the biggest stage of all.
Callum McGregor is a major problem in these games away from home in Europe. He can get away with being a midfield anchor in the Scottish league where Celtic have the bulk of possession and can overrun teams.
He is simply not good enough to play there in Europe. We needed a strong midfielder to just sit in front of the back four and break up play. The amount of times he got caught wrong side tonight was shocking.
He has never been that player and now he has lost the little pace he had. Yet he plays every single fucking minute every game and whoever is commentating can’t seem to remove their lips from his rectum. We needed Engels legs in there tonight also. Any half serious club would have told him he will not be sold until we have got through this tie. But Nicholson was wanking into his sock as soon as money was offered for him. Even letting Bernardo out on loan was batshit until this tie had been negotiated. They obviously didn’t even know the Ox was suspended. Amateur.
That’s £80m in 2 seasons thrown away by the board with their piss poor management.
Editor: McGregor needs help and support. Instead at the age of 33 more is expected of him since Nicholson is hellbent on selling off anyone that attracts a bid.
Actually it was a good result overall. We never spend more than we get from players sales so who cares about CL money? Nicholson and Co, not players nor fans. If we are trounced by LASK what do you think we would get against psg or barca? We will win the league and cup double or even the treble, having more money than other 11 teams in the league and we will celebrate in May. We will get to Europa League play off and get knocked out by the first average team. Next year we will fail in the CL qualifiers again, but this time we will start in the second qualifying round in July. And in the meantime we will have a laugh at Ibrox to feel better about ourselves. Same old. Apathy
A brutal reality check so early in the season.
The squad is nowhere near the quality we [maybe] thought it was?
…and MON should have walked away triumphantly,
after delivering the Double last season.
Everyone is smarting after that one. So glad you’re shining a light on MN I’m really disappointed at the flak some home players are getting for giving what they have and their families. Bad performance yes but out there when asked unlike the invisible man.
They deserve scrutiny and are happy for inexpensive Sellick men to carry the can which a not for me.
Millions in the bank and n the black this window and happy for McCowan et al to shoulder the blame. Shame on them. Call it out shame on them. Lennoxtown producing the cheap squad players they want to generate bonuses. For themselves. Feel for these guys as the usual suspects hide.
The whole defence is very fragile. This result was in the post unfortunately by not signing player’s quickly enough.
Badly missed a defensive midfielder that should have already been bought before any qualifiers.
Joe that was the worst surrender I’ve ever seen, 4 up and to lose game…unforgivable,,,,MON, coaching team and board should all pack their bags and f**k off this morning
When O’Neil changed half the team you could see the SPFL quality (abysmal),Duran looks like he has lost weight, having no energy, CCV has no pace,and the long grass just proved that.Very painful night.
Sack the Board????
All week people were laughing like we were world beaters, then the reality of the teams short comings bit us in the arse. Dreadful performance and tactics. The team is shocking. Four goals up with less than 60 minutes to play and O’Neill fucked it up. In four weeks time the season could be down the pan. As the great man said “the jersey doesn’t shrink to fit inferior players”. We have too many of them. The defence is dreadful, the midfield are not much better,no dig, the wingers couldn’t get deliver a letter, the whole fuckin team couldn’t pass a parked car. That’s down to the board and the management, but do they care ? If we get beat by the huns it’s pitchforks at dawn.
why are we surprised
we have the same crap bunch of players from last year we sold 2 of our best ones and added 3 players but look at the dross we finished the game with most are not even good enough for the spfl never mind europe
Three touch Tierneys play is so predictable also he struggles to finish a game , we had Sarrachi as a back up and even managed to fk up his transfer and he was on a free , so we went with the cheaper option ,,,,,anyone will do ,,,
we deserved nothing , we did get away with it in the first tie due to there poor finishing , but last night the showed us how we should have played the game
were run like a struggling corner shop , europa league will be the same , until we get our act together we should forget all about euope , were the diddy team everyone wants and it’s embarrassing
That 2nd half performance was up there with watching Nancy’s team play