The sheer stupidity of the way Celtic has been managed since running Bayern Munich ever so close in the Champions League play-off round almost a year ago was exposed yesterday evening when Celtic PLC dropped their Interim Report for the six months to 31 December, 2025…
The Celtic Board. Partick Thistle v Celtic. Premier Sports League Cup. Sunday 21 September. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)Numbers don’t lie and in this instance they tell a sorry story of blunders, poor decision making, arrogance mixed with bitterness and intransigence that has not only cost Celtic off the park but also on it with a Cup Final lost as a direct result of decisions taken by the boardroom to appoint Wilfried Nancy as our manager.
Yet the financial cost of that disastrous appointment will not be seen until the second half of the financial year when the numbers are going to be even worse.
Nicolas Kuhn scores during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Knockout Play-off second leg match between FC Bayern München and Celtic FC at Allianz Arena on February 18, 2025 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)
After Munich a reasonable person might have assumed that the cash rich club might have backed the manager Brendan Rodgers who had a stated ambition of leading Celtic back to a place where we could compete in Europe once again and even his harshest critics (the Lawwellites) couldn’t deny he had achieved that last season.
Yet they wanted to focus on his transfer dealing the previous summer, signing Engels, Idah and Trusty and in doing so ‘wasting’ over £25m. Yet Idah’s goals were crucial in getting us into the Champions League last season while on loan from Norwich where he was available for only £3m at that time. Celtic didn’t get an option in that deal.
Adam Idah scores the winner for Celtic in the 2024 Scottish Cup Final against theRangers at Hampden. Photo Vagelis Georgariou for The Celtic Star
Idah incidentally alongside Nicolas Kuhn were Celtic’s top scores in that Champions League campaign, with Idah also forcing the own goal that earned us our spot in the play-off round.
Arne Engels of Celtic has a shot on goal. Celtic v Livingston, Scottish Premiership, 11 Feb rural 2026. Photo Mark Runnacles IMAGO Shutterstock
Then there’s our record signing Arne Engels, a young player with bags of potential but needing to be developed. His critics were there from the start, the price paid was nothing to do with him but was continually used against him. Yet he too contributed. Just a few weeks ago Celtic turned down THREE bids from Nottingham Forest, the last one reaching £25m, for the Belgian midfielder, thus blowing the waste of money argument out of the water.
Idah had gone by then, tapped up by one of our own Darren O’Dea and glad to get away from the ‘hate’ he had to face at Celtic, mostly due to the stream caused by the transfer fee paid to Norwich City who (fair play to them) exploited Idah’s outstanding contribution to Celtic in his loan spell to help with the league and Scottish Cup double, scoring a 90th minute winner against theRangers in the final.
Auston Trusty of Celtic celebrates scoring his team’s fourth goal during the UEFA Europa League 2025/26 League Phase MD8 match between Celtic FC and FC Utrecht at Celtic Park on January 29, 2026. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
And Trusty too continually was targeted by the haters. Yet he has more than earned a little more appreciation and certainly has not lost his transfer valuation should he move on.
This of course is in shape contrast to the £25m wasted in the previous window when Mark Lawwell was allowed to play football manager and Rodgers was left to work with the signings. He should have appreciated though that the signing decisions taken by Peter Lawwell’s son would get worse as he entered his third of three seasons (giving a 200% guarantee that he’d see it out) when Paul Tisdale ‘club’ signings started to arrive.
Chris McKay and Paul Tisdale, Motherwell v Celtic, Scottish Premiership. 30 December 2025 Photo by Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
Where was the Kyogo replacement? If Nicolas Kuhn is being sold let’s bring in a quality winger to replace him? Where is the building on Munich strategy for further progress in the Champions League?
Having attended many of the media conferences with Brendan at the start of this season, including the one where the questions focused on the transfer window and were the ‘club signings’ phrase was used, I can clearly recall that Rodgers wasn’t posting fingers at anyone but simply expressed his view as the Celtic manager in what was needed. A striker for a start.
Celtic and Kairat Almaty line ups Kairat Almaty v Celtic, UEFA Champions League, Play-Off Round, Second Leg, Football, Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan – 26 August 2025. Photo Anikita Bassov Shutterstock
The Champions League exit after two goalless draws against Kairat Almaty, who went on to take just one point in the Champions League group stages (one more than I predicted on The Celtic Star), was the biggest cause of the astonishingly bad financial numbers.
The summer transfer window showed that the club was ill equipped to operate in the market properly and with a toxic regard for Rodgers from his enemies in the boardroom it was always going to end badly.
Peter Lawwell, Michael Nicholson and Christopher McKay watch on as Celtic draw 0-0 with Kairat at Celtic Park in the UEFA Champions League play-off match, worth over £40m to the winners.
Paul Tisdale, the so-called football doctor, was given a free ride as there was little focus on him. Michael Nicholson, like Mark Lawwell an inside the tent promotion from company secretary days was clearly not a frontman like his mentor and struggled badly in dealing with the cut and thrust of transfer dealings, mostly because he had no real authority and had to report back to the largest shareholder Dermot Desmond. Clubs like Go Ahead Eagles mocked us openly.
Rodgers was still getting us results domestically and collected four points from three games in the Europa League starting the job that Martin O’Neill would eventually finish.
Brendan Rodgers talks to the media after the match. Hearts v Celtic, 26 October 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
Losses to Dundee after a European match and then Hearts brought matters to a head as Rodgers made a silly error by introducing the Honda Civic reference which his enemies latched onto gleefully.
theRangers had started the season badly and at that stage no-one was really taking the Hearts threat too seriously but after back-to-back defeats he called a meeting to hold peace talks so that the season could be save. There he offered to resign if the two factions couldn’t work together.
It was known among the corporate supporters at least that they (the Celtic Board) wanted Rodgers out so his resignation offer was quickly accepted and Martin O’Neill was brought in to steady the ship. Thank heavens for Martin x 2.
Wilfried Nancy. Motherwell v Celtic, Scottish Premiership. 30 December 2025 Photo by Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
The decision makers, helped by Paul Tisdale whose influence was growing despite his role in a hellish summer window, sourced Wilfried Nancy as their first choice outstanding candidate. This being the most stupid decision of them all and Celtic went into freefall during his damaging 33 days in charge.
His time was up at Tannadice. I sat there with the Green Brigade and the Board to my right but it was to my left where the majority of the Celtic away support – those from the buses – told Nancy where to go. His time was up but on he rolled for a few more disasters as our nightmare continued.
Shaun Maloney and Martin O’Neill at Celtic Park on October 28, 2025 (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Martin returned with Shaun Maloney and the rest of the gang who knew what they were doing unlike Nancy and his ‘Crew’. We shall see how that pans out.
Nicholson though tried to ‘get tough’ with the Green Brigade over an incident at the Falkirk game in August. Putting the rights and wrongs to one side, a competent CEO deals with that much better, perhaps dishes out some punishment then reaches agreement on the way forward and the circus continues as it has done since the standing area was introduced BY CELTIC.
The Celtic Fan Media got banned, no more than grubby censorship and that’s a relationship that may never be restored. Many of the sites who joined four years ago had already dropped out and the ones that remained had to put up with a great deal from the club. From Celtic’s point of view any influence they thought they had over sites was clearly lost.
Celtic Fans Collective
The Celtic Fans Collective was formed in early September by shocked supporters who could not believe just how badly the season had started with the Champions League failure and the terrible transfer window with no replacement for Kyogo signed. That would take them a year to achieve, by the skin of their teeth.
The Collective will meet Celtic this week and will note the number released yesterday and also the decision taken to hide the merchandising numbers which must be concerning to say the least. The Celtic Fans Collective’s ‘Not a Penny More’ campaign clearly has had an impact.
Peter Lawwell was replaced by Brian Wilson at the start of the year and its taken to mid-February for him to meet the Collective, although he did meet the Affiliation last week and also the Green Brigade. Wilson is right to call for unity and that is also what the Celtic support wants.
Michael Nicholson’s position can be settled in the summer. The financial numbers will make that call, so the Collective don’t need to be too concerned about that on. The Green Brigade need to return, and also need to understand the limits, and the fan media sites that want to return should be allowed to. Boycotts and other campaigns like ‘Not Another Penny’ need to be suspended.
Then the focus can return to backing the team and helping Martin O’Neill rescue the season. Celtic PLC’s Interim Report is shown below…
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