KILMARNOCK, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 18: Celtic Chief Executive Michael Nicholson and Chief Financial Officer Christopher McKay during a Scottish Gas Scottish Cup Fourth Round match between Auchinleck Talbot and Celtic at BBSP Stadium Rugby Park, on January 18, 2026, in Kilmarnock, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Interviews with Michael Nicholson are very rare. For good reason.
The Celtic CEO isn’t a natural leader or communicator. Which is kind of awkward for a CEO draining £17,000 a week while hiding in his office.
Last December Celtic TV treated fans to two interviews with the leader known as Mute Mike.
The first was the day after the announcement that Wilfried Nancy was taking over as manager. The second came after losing the League Cup Final to St Mirren, ahead of losing a fourth successive match, away to Dundee United.
Some emotional clips were used to demonstrate the human side of Nicholson. They failed miserably.
There was the iconic hug as Nancy got out a taxi. If only that driver had hung around an hour or two and removed former Columbus Crew from the premises.
In a classic Celtic TV production Gerry McCulloch nursed his CEO through some classic quotes as Nicholson demonstrated why the club keep him locked away from the slightest of media attention.
It was a great day for Celtic and we’re delighted to welcome Wilfried and his backroom team to Lennoxtown
There’s a lot of work to do, and Wilfried was very clear that he wanted to get straight into it.
You could sense the excitement at Lennoxtown introducing Wilfried to the staff, and also for Wilfried to have the opportunity to meet with Martin.
O’Neill later revealed that his successor spent 15 minutes discussing the squad. At media interviews Nancy was asked about O’Neill, replying ‘yeah, what a guy’.
It was a good day, but this is where the work starts.
McCulloch then mentioned the lengthy process to identify Nancy, a decision that the mute CEO was clearly proud of.
When we identified Wilfried as our primary candidate, we had to go to work to make sure that we could deliver Wilfried and his staff, the club he was working with at the time clearly were keen to keep a hold of Wilfried.
So, we were delighted to get through that process and bring him in.
And once we had achieved that, we wanted to get Wilfried started as quickly as possible.
McCulloch then asked Nicholson about his confidence in the French dud to cope with the hectic run of fixtures that Celtic were facing
We believe in Wilfried, I think that we wanted to get him started as quickly as we could and you saw that this morning.
He was straight into it, he wanted to get into the football. We know that we have a massive game ahead on Sunday (beaten 2-1 at home by Hearts). A massive week ahead (beaten by Roma and losing a cup final to St Mirren).
I don’t think that there is ever an easy time to start at Celtic. We know the expectations, we know what we want to deliver for our supporters. We believe that this is the right time to bring Wilfried in.
We’ve been pushing very hard to get the process completed as quickly as we could. It took time (40 days including the November international break).
Good things take time, we’re delighted to bring him in today in advance of the game on Sunday.
Asked about the identification and recruitment process Nicholson added:
When Brendan resigned we always have to be aware of the market. We’ve been aware of Wilfried for a long time, he was our number one candidate going into the process.
The more that we looked into it the more that we saw that he aligned with what we need and what our vision for the club is.
We want to develop the club, we want to develop players and we want to succeed. So there is a real performance element in there.
The more that we looked at it the more that we felt that Wilfried was a perfect fit.
NICHOLSON- THE CEO THAT APPOINTED LAWWELL MINI, TISDALE AND NANCY
Later Nicholson claimed that there was no doubt that Wilfried and his staff get Celtic.
Nancy’s backroom team never even made it onto the club website before they were binned.
Nicholson continued the interview digging deeper into the rabbit hole. At one stage you almost felt that he believed the script he was reading off.
The ‘leading sports lawyer’ was super excited to get started, to get down to working with Nancy.
Plans were in place for the weeks and months ahead. Nicholson was ready to back the Frenchman in the January and summer transfer windows because their visions were aligned.
Nancy was an absolute disaster. A bigger disaster that Mark Lawwell and Paul Tisdale, two recruitment experts appointed by Nicholson.
The Frenchman lasted 33 days consisting of six defeats in eight matches.
Thirteen days after that woeful interview Nicholson was back with McCulloch underlining his support for the next manager.
On January 5 Nancy and Tisdale were sacked. Nicholson hasn’t been interviewed by McCulloch this year.
The CEO refused to attend the December 4 media conference to introduce his number one candidate.
When O’Neill returned on January 5 Nicholson was in hiding. A stance that he maintained in the summer when O’Neill was confirmed as permanent manager.
“…[Nancy] was our number one candidate going into the process…”
Could that be interpretated as:
“…we only considered 1 candidate for the Celtic manager position…”?
Who needs a global search to identify a shortlist of the very best candidates then? 🙁
MUTE MIKE MUTINY AT CELTIC
The chief executive officer of Celtic Fc PLC. Has earned a nickname.
He was given the job by Peter the Terrible after Peter got shot of the best CEO Dominic the man who turned Rugby Union into the success it is today was dumped after a short period in charge of our struggling club.
Dominic was a skilled approachable man who could communicate at all levels of society with quite charm
Unlike Peter the Terrible who had all the sophistication of a semi house trained polecat.
Dom threatened the status quo and therefore had to go!
MUTE MIKE then was shoe horned into the job and the rest is a history of bungle after bungle Most recently “The Nancy afair” followed by the return of Auld Martin etc…etc…etc
This season already
Out Champions league:
Out League League Cup:
Continuation of last seasons very very poor football.
Not to mention a possible mutiny in the changing room.
Seems like the strategy of the board and CEO is silent routine.
MUTE MIKE is not stupid,is not dumb, This is what makes his actions culpable to say the least!
(BLM)
Wilfried felt like one of the natives, feeling right at home with a racial prejudice welcome after being told to get himself a Black cab to the ground, robbed by a bigoted Glasgow taxi driver chaging an extortionate fare for the customary detoured scenic route from the airport, frisked on arrival by Nicholson whose tight hug looked to have caused Nancy to utter “I can’t breathe”. After being introduced to the players and playing staff he was given a the hooped shirt to pose for the cameras, he must have felt he was entering a hard labour penitentiary, back to meet a chain gang of new friends. It took time for Nicholson, but eventually he got his Man Friday, we haven’t yet heard the unchained melody by the righteous brother Nicholson.