Considering Michael Nicholson’s “busy enough as it is” remark

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The Celtic Star

·10 de octubre de 2025

Considering Michael Nicholson’s “busy enough as it is” remark

When pressed on why no legal action has been taken against The Scottish Sun for their article on a club insider saying Brendan Rodgers is “engineering his exit,” Michael Nicholson insists Celtic were “busy enough as it is”…

Peter Lawwell, Brendan Rodgers and Michael Nicholson. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The matter came up at Monday night’s meeting between the board and fan representatives, as supporters sought clarification regarding a September report from The Scottish Sun that cited a senior Celtic figure accusing Rodgers of pandering to public opinion amid a difficult period for the club.

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The freshly published minutes reveal as per Celtic FC that Chief Executive Michael Nicholson informed attendees the club had internally reviewed the article and deemed the issue “closed.” When questioned about the absence of an official inquiry or legal response, Nicholson allegedly remarked that Celtic were “busy enough as it is.”

Peter Lawwell, Brendan Rodgers and Michael Nicholson (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The response by Nicholson has been viewed quite rightfully as weak, interpreting the article as an inside attack on the manager during a terrible time for the club, coming off an abysmal transfer window and a Champions League exit at the hands of Kazakh minnows Kairat Almaty.

The debate resurfaced this week on Clyde 1 Superscoreboard after a listener phoned in to question Scottish Sun journalist Roger Hannah about the report.

🤔 "Do you stand by that article?" 👀 Roger Hannah breaks silence on story about Celtic insiders believing Brendan Rodgers wanted out ⬇️
– miércoles, 8 de octubre de 2025

Continues on the next page…

Posing the question to Hannah, Kieran the Celtic fan said: “The article said club sources blamed Rodgers for paving the way for his exit and that senior figures were in disagreement with him. Do you still stand by that article?”

Hannah replied: “Yes. I stand by that article.”

Peter Lawwell, Brendan Rodgers and Michael Nicholson (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Hannah noted that both Rodgers and Nicholson had later described the situation as “done,” but the caller remained unconvinced, responding: “There are people within the club who’ve got no respect for the way Rodgers operates. They’ll stop at nothing to undermine him.”

It’s just another sorry episode exemplifying how out of touch the board are with supporters’ interests. It will be interesting to hear Brendan Rodgers’ thoughts on whether he believes the club handled the internal investigation correctly.

Michael Nicholson is an experienced solicitor and will understand the complexities of looking at any legal action against a journalist who would always protect his sources. The tensions between Brendan Rodgers and senior board members at Celtic are nothing new, indeed that was the exact reason he left Celtic to join Leicester.

The briefing against the Celtic manager has been ongoing, pretty much since the day he returned, with a compliant Celtic blogger regularly making (increasingly bizarre) digs at Rodgers, presumably after being briefed by his lord and master.

Dermot Desmond and Peter Lawwell. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

Actually legal action would achieve nothing but had there been a fan advisory board in place then that certainly could make an impact on these type of situations going forward.

As the manager of Celtic Brendan Rodgers was justified in calling for investment in the team to help the club continue to develop in Europe after the encouraging campaign in the Champions League last season. His warnings were not heeded and his remarks were seen as him not being an executive team player, thus the story appearing in the Sun.

Brendan Rodgers of Celtic Crvena zvezda v Celtic, UEFA Europa League, Football, Rajko Mitic Stadium, Belgrade, Serbia – 24 September 2025 Belgrade Rajko Mitic Stadium Serbia Photo Nikola Krstic Shutterstock

Briefings like this are nothing new and supporters who wouldn’t be too upset to see Brendan Rodgers leave at the end of the season should maybe consider that his replacement will almost certainly be an executive team player rather than a manager pushing for Celtic to be the best possible version of ourselves and to have realistic chances of being a consistently competitive team in the Champions League.

The one matter that wasn’t raised by the Celtic supporters at Monday night’s meeting was whether the club had progressed with their discussions from over the summer with Brendan Rodgers regarding a new contract.

The day before the Hibs match a few weeks ago The Celtic Star asked Rodgers at the end of his media conference if there was any developments on this and he said there was nothing new to report.

Conor Spence

Celtic in the Eighties and Willie Fernie – Putting on the Style both by David Potter. Photo The Celtic Star

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Danny McGrain signing copies of Celtic in the Eighties by David Potter. Photo: Celtic Star Books

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