The Celtic CEO seems to think his staged interview will suffice when it when it comes to the new manager, as Nancy faces the media alone

This year at Celtic, there has been a lot of firsts for the club.

Not the kind of firsts you’d like to boast about, but a lot of them nonetheless.

Selling your main striker and not replacing him before a Champions League knockout tie was the first of those firsts.

I don’t think we’ve ever done that before.

Then of course, the principal shareholder launched a scathing attack on Brendan Rodgers.

That was another first.

Following on from that, we were treated to a lecture from the principal shareholder’s son on how we should behave as fans.

Ross Desmond decided to tell us Celtic fans that we were anti-establishment.

Imagine that?

Telling fans of an anti-establishment club that they were, well…..anti-establishment?

Another first.

And unfortunately for young Desmond Junior, a last for him.

In hindsight, he might see it that it was not his brightest moment, but I doubt it.

Well, if we thought that Desmond Junior’s gaffe was the last of the firsts, we can think again.

We were treated to a spectacularly cowardly first yesterday.

Yes, for the first time in Celtic’s modern a history, a new manager had to unveil and present HIMSELF to the Scottish mainstream sports media.

When I settled down to watch the live media conference where Wilfried Nancy was introduced to the SMSM, I was stunned to see he was sent out to face them on his own.

Now, I wrote in yesterday’s article that I thought that part of the reason fan media was banned from attending his unveiling was because the board members I expected to flank him on either side wouldn’t want to face any awkward questions.

Well, it would appear that our lily-livered board members are afraid to entertain questions of any description.

From anyone.

Although I’m sure they had no choice but to answer one pertinent question yesterday.

From Monsieur Nancy.

I’d imagine it went something like this…

“I am taking questions from the media alone, yes??”

Now, I’m not sure what kind of spin our charismatic CEO could have put on his answer to that question, but I’d wager it went something like this:

“Ehhh yes, Wilfried, after hearing your interview with Gerry, you’ll have them eating out of your hands! I’d only get in your way.”

Ain’t that the truth?

And to be fair to our new manager, he answered the media’s questions with ease.

The reality is that Michael Nicholson probably would have cramped his style.

But that’s not really the point here.

The point is that any CEO of a £100 million+ per annum business should be front and centre on an occasion like yesterday’s.

The fact that ours wasn’t speaks volumes to his inadequacies as CEO of Celtic.

What’s worse is that during his stage managed interview yesterday, he trotted out the same lines he did after Brendan Rodgers became manager.

About the project, supporting the manager in the transfer window, and developing the club.

Developing the club?

Something he actively partook in dismantling during Ange Postecoglou and Brendan Rodgers’ time at the club.

The first thing Nicholson is going to do in the January transfer window is punt Daizen Maeda.

You can be sure Wilfried Nancy will have to wait until that is done before he can spend a penny.

Nicholson’s task has always been to ensure every transfer window is profitable.

Credit where it’s due, that is something he has never failed at during his time as CEO.

But when it comes to Nicholson and credibility, he really doesn’t have much of that commodity.

And with each passing day that he’s CEO, he drains the last vestiges of any he had left.

Yesterday was just another example of that.

I don’t know who told him he shouldn’t sit alongside the club’s new manager during his first media conference, but it was ill-advised at best, and at worst, optically destructive.

Nicholson’s invisibility in situations like this leaves him wide open to ridicule.

Not that he struggles hard in that department.

But above all else, it makes him look like a coward.

In all of my years as a football supporter, I don’t think I can ever recall the unveiling of a new manager at a club without board members of significance being there beside them.

Like I said at the outset, 2025 will definitely go down as a year of firsts at Celtic.

And not many of them good.

Yesterday, Celtic looked like a club that is leaderless.

There is no doubting a plan was in place for how things would go.

The timing of Nicholson’s staged managed interview tells us as much.

Air that before Wilfried Nancy’s media conference, and all bases were covered.

No awkward questions to be fielded, and a party political broadcast served up to the fanbase to keep them informed of how good our alluring CEO is at his job.

Empty promises, all of them, trotted out before and never honoured.

What makes us think that’s going to change all of a sudden now?

The board has made it crystal clear to us that they’re not changing their M.O. when it comes to the way they run this club, so what makes anyone think they will alter their approach to transfer policy in an way?

Fluff pieces like yesterday’s interview will be treated with the skepticism they deserve, and nothing else.

This board is notorious for lying.

We have been witness to that in many capacities over the last few months.

They cannot be trusted.

And if they wanted to present the perception that this is a club at war with itself, they’ve presented it in spades in the last couple of days.

The new manager is barely in the door, and they’re already hiding behind him.

They are refusing to face questioning of any kind.

On Wednesday night, they had barriers up all around the approach to Celtic Park.

It’s almost as if they were expecting a riot, or an uprising from the “aggressive and irrational factions”.

There is a complete refusal to enter into any kind of dialogue or discourse with Celtic supporters.

Instead, it is better to ban them, shut them out, and restrict their ability to ask questions.

All this looks like is that they’re circling the wagons.

This isn’t going to get any better until they agree to engage with the wider support.

Just as they used Brendan Rodgers, and Martin O’Neill as shields to hide behind, they made it blatantly clear they’re going to do the same with Wilfried Nancy.

Shame on them for not having the courage to sit beside him for his unveiling.

And shame on them for giving Wilfried Nancy that impression of our club from the outset.

It’s clear that Nancy is an intelligent man.

He will not have missed the significance of yesterday’s events.

What a first impression to set for him…