Talk is cheap, and after today’s interview the Celtic CEO now needs to put his money where his mouth is

Wilfried Nancy quietly arrived at Lennoxtown yesterday, to minimal fanfare, and little or no media presence. The Celtic CEO and head of finance were there to meet him upon his arrival.

He got to meet the Celtic players, and not long after that, gave his first interview to Gerry McCulloch from Celtic TV.

I’ve included the interview below for anyone who hasn’t seen it already.

YouTube: Exclusive Interview: Wilfried Nancy (4/12/25)

It’s interesting, for many reasons.

How his philosophy translates onto the pitch and into his starting eleven is what we’re all waiting to see.

The new manager spoke about how he identifies with Celtic, a club open to all, which he quoted during his interview.

It is clear from listening to him that immediately, he gets what Celtic is about.

Or should I say, was about.

Because at this moment in time, Celtic certainly doesn’t look a club that is open to all.

It is becoming clearer by the day, that any dissenting voices in our support are not welcome at Celtic Park.

The protracted campaign against the Green brigade, and as we found out today, the closure of access to fan media tells us that the board is determined to purge itself of anyone who does not agree with their viewpoint.

It will be interesting to see what kind of viewpoint our new manager will form of all this.

I can only assume that it will develop over time when he becomes more aware of his surroundings.

In the meantime, it’s up to us as a support to get 100% behind Wilfried Nancy.

And as always, we will do that.

Even if our ability to do so becomes more and more restricted.

It is clear that by stopping fan media access, the board wanted to ensure Nancy was not exposed to any “toxic questioning” from fan media outlets affiliated with their arch nemesis, the Celtic Fans Collective.

In the midst of all of this, we were treated to an “exclusive interview” from our uber-talkative CEO today.

Strangely enough, if we were to look at Silent Mike’s unwillingness to engage or talk up to this point, it’s gone from one extreme to the other.

Prior to now, we were treated to one single instance of vocal engagement from Michael Nicholson back in 2023.

That was at the second unveiling as manger of Brendan Rodgers, where the Irishman stated he would be at Celtic for the duration of his 3 year contract, unless he was emptied.

Unfortunately for Rodgers, he was emptied.

And then some.

Some day, we might eventually find out just how badly emptied he was.

But as I stated, until recently, that was the last time we’d heard anything from Silent Mike.

In the last couple of weeks, we’ve been treated to no less than two vocal engagements from our savvy CEO.

Who seemed to be suffering from verbal diarrhea on both occasions.

Gerry McCulloch couldn’t shut him up.

And he seemed to want to get everything he wanted to say out in one continuous monotonous sentence.

Two appearances??

That’s double what we’ve ever seen of Michael Nicholson in his entire tenure as Celtic CEO!

One could be forgiven for thinking that somebody told him speaking and moving were prerequisites for his job.

Funnily enough, he seems to have caught the bug when you consider how much we’ve been treated to his dulcet tones recently!

However, he has committed to doing something Celtic have seemed incapable of in recent years.

And that’s backing the manager in the transfer window.

Nicholson has given assurances that Wilfried Nancy will be backed in the upcoming January window, and beyond.

Here is some of what he had to say in his interview with Gerry Mcculloch:

It all starts on Sunday (against Hearts) because we know that the challenge here is to come in, perform and win.

But beyond that, there’s a project here that we’re all committed to. We want to develop the club and we want to perform.

And in order to do that, we’re all going to get behind Wilfried from today, in the next coming days, the weeks and months and particularly in the transfer windows ahead, both in January and into the summer.

We’ll do everything we can to support Wilfried and his team and the players to deliver success for our supporters.

Only a short opening statement, but several keywords to draw from it.

Project

Transfer

Support

Develop

Keywords which have been missing from anything the club has expressed in recent times.

The question is, is this for real, or is Nicholson just telling people what they want to hear?

To all intents and purposes, that almost sounds to me like a plan.

Something the club has been sorely lacking of late.

You will note the order I put those words in, and what the initials add up to.

Something this board has made us suffer from for a long time.

A few reassuring words from our revered CEO aren’t going to undo that sort of feeling amongst the fans.

If he says there is a project, we’ll believe it when we see it.

And if he says the club will back Wilfried Nancy in the next transfer window, and into the future, we’ll believe that when he’s backed in every transfer window for the duration of his time at the club.

It’s no good backing him for the first two windows, and then selling all the assets he purchases if they’re successful, just as Ange Postecoglou’s players were.

A project is something that stretches beyond two transfer windows.

A project, by it’s very definition, is an individual or collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim.

Carefully planned.

If the board is going to support Wilfried Nancy, then they cannot asset strip the team he builds.

Because in order to develop his side, he needs to be allowed some longevity to do so.

If his players produce one good season, and then offers start pouring in for some of them, then the club must commit to replacing them adequately if they are sold.

Which clearly wasn’t the case during Brendan Rodgers’ tenure.

Matt O’Riley, Kyogo Furuhashi, Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah, are just some recent examples.

Nicholson says that they believe in Wilfried Nancy.

What did Brendan Rodgers do so wrong, aside from delivering 4 out of 6 trophies, that they didn’t believe in him?

This particular statement made me laugh, though:

I don’t think there’s ever an easy time to start with Celtic. We know the expectation, we know what we want to deliver for supporters, but we believe this was the right time to bring Wilfried in.

We want to deliver for supporters?

He should have rephrased that and said that they only want to deliver for supporters who support their vision for the club.

Because they’re making it quite clear that anybody who doesn’t agree with the way they do things has no place at Celtic Park.

Look, I could pull this whole interview apart, but I’m not going to.

The truth of the matter is that Nicholson said all of the things we as a support want to hear.

But those things would be believable if he and the rest of the board members hadn’t declared all out war against a massive chunk of the Celtic support.

They would be believable if all of this hadn’t arisen out of the complete shitshow that has gone before it.

So, you can understand why people might be skeptical of what he says?

They only want to do things the right way now?

But who knows?

Wilfried Nancy might just drag them, and the club, kicking and screaming in the second quarter of the 21st century.

I don’t hold out much faith in that happening.

And personally, I just do not trust this board.

Maybe if they started mending bridges, instead of creating chasms between them and the support, I might start to believe they want to change.

But for now, that’s not something I’m willing to do.

I’ll tell you what I am willing to do, though.

I’m willing to put all of my energy into supporting Wilfried Nancy and the team.

Because right now, that’s something positive worth investing in.

I have a good feeling about this man.

He might just be the man who puts all the broken pieces of Celtic back together again.

And that’s something we could all do with now.

As for Michael Nicholson?

Talk is cheap, time for him to put his money where his mouth is…

YouTube: Wilfried Nancy: Live media conference