3rd May 2026; Easter Road, Edinburgh, Scotland: Scottish Premiership Football, Hibernian versus Celtic; Brian Wilson, Michael Nicholson and Chris McKay of Celtic
Michael Nicholson and Chris McKay were in the money for season 25/26 despite Celtic posting losses of £4.8m.
On a turnover of £111m the Executive duo were paid £1,530,706 which included bonuses of £420,486.
Critical to season 25/26 Celtic failed to qualify for the Champions League, losing out to Kairat Almaty in the Play Off. Kairat picked up one point from their first ever Champions League campaign.
Celtic barely prepared for those two matches at the end of August.
Kyogo Furuhashi was sold in January and not replaced. Shin Yamada was signed by the club and rejected by three different managers. He is now in his second loan spell, goal-less in November with OH Leuven.
NICHOLSON & MCKAY- WE DON’T CARE IF WE WIN, LOSE OR DRAW
At the start of July Nicolas Kuhn was sold without any right-winger brought in as his replacement.
After losing to Kairat Celtic then signed Michel-Ange Balikwisha and Sebastian Tounekti. The combined fee was £10m with two five year contracts handed out.
@JBNYSports And folk wonder why Nicholson and Mackay don’t walk away ??
— Eddie (@MacRosie3) November 6, 2026
At any normal PLC the buck stops with the CEO and CFO. At Celtic it seems that they are being rewarded regardless of how the club performs.
On every metric Celtic under performed last season.
In their limited in-house comments Nicholson and ‘Interim’ Chairman Brian Wilson both admitted to mistakes being made last season with lessons learned. Those mistakes have never been detailed.
Effectively Celtic have already committed the same mistakes as last season, failing to reach the Champions League.
Expectations have been reduced to such an extent that one Europa League win in four is being celebrated as turning a corner.
This time in 2024 Celtic had seven points from four Champions League matches. Today they have three Europa League points.
Regardless of results it seems that Nicholson and McKay will be in the money.
Both men were brought to Celtic by former CEO Peter Lawwell.
