Charlie Nicholas’ latest clownish Celtic comments can be safely ignored by all.

As regular readers will know, I regard Charlie Nicholas as one of the pundits out there who knows the least about Celtic, despite being a former player.

This is a guy who has built much of his media reputation on criticising our club, downplaying our achievements, and making lurid claims that we’re always one bad moment away from full-blown crisis.

Nicholas has earned a few distinctions in his time in the media.

One of them is that he’s among the very few former Celtic players whom multiple managers have publicly criticised for his ignorant opinions. I know for certain that both Lennon and Rodgers have taken shots at him. If memory serves, Martin O’Neill might have done it too—although I might be confusing him with another ex-Celtic player, maybe Davie Provan or someone like that.

There are people who, when they talk about our club, you stop and listen. David Low is one of them. Whenever he’s online and talking about Celtic—or anything else—I tune in. Alan Morrison of Celtic By Numbers is another. He’s well-informed, keeps up to date, and he’s someone worth listening to. There are a handful of others in Celtic cyberspace and beyond who are absolutely spot on.

Even in the mainstream media there are one or two.

Michael Gannon, for example, is known to be respected inside Celtic Park, although I’ve read his stuff and often wondered why. But every court needs its fool, and every organisation needs its useful media idiot, I suppose. That probably explains it.

Still, he’s knowledgeable enough about Celtic that he’s occasionally used to float messages the club wants out there—and sometimes to break news before it reaches his colleagues. So, I do find myself paying more attention to him.

But Charlie Nicholas? He’s someone I roll my eyes at whenever he opens his mouth. Whenever I read that he’s written about us, I don’t take it seriously. He has no credibility inside Celtic Park. People at the club know he’s a shit-stirrer.

Nobody gives him information. Nobody talks to him. His ignorance about Celtic—and football in general—is legendary.

Yesterday I said I didn’t want to become the kind of person who regularly bashes ex-players in the media. But there are some who never had and never will have an ounce of credibility with me or with most Celtic fans.

Nicholas is one of them. McAvennie is another. Mark Wilson over at Radio Clyde has regurgitated so much anti-Celtic rubbish over the years that I barely notice him anymore. But even amongst that sorry bunch, Nicholas is in a class of his own.

His comments yesterday were scaremongering garbage.

And yet, reading them, I was reminded of that old adage that even a broken clock is right twice a day. Because yes, he’s correct to say we need to move faster. Yes, he’s right to say this team needs four or five signings.

But to stamp his feet like a petulant child and demand that it should already be done—when the window has only just opened—is absurd. His hysterical claim that half the first team squad wants to leave and that we need a full-scale rebuild is exactly that: hysterical nonsense.

It’s classic Nicholas.

He always tries to paint Celtic as being one slip away from total collapse. There’s no real insight in anything he said—other than the insight that he’s still a moron. But we already knew that.

The idea that we need four or five players isn’t new. That’s been widely accepted since last season ended. We know we need a second left back. We know Jota’s injury means we need another left-sided attacking option. We know we need another striker. That’s three already. Most of us agree we also need a centre back and a midfielder.

So where’s the scoop? Where’s the grand revelation Nicholas has offered up that no one else saw coming?

The Scotsman ran with his comment about the “shock” possibility that we could lose Maeda—as if that came from somewhere credible.

But it didn’t. It came from Nicholas’s own mouth. He has no information on that. None on Hatate either. Just the same baseless scaremongering we’ve come to expect from this clown. And his claim that we’re dragging our feet? Nonsense.

The window has just opened. Tierney is back. Doolan is back. We’ve signed a young striker. We’ve brought in the left back from Morton—granted, those two aren’t going straight into the first team, but still. Nygren is incoming.

And if some reports are to be believed, we’re a button press away from landing the boy from Antwerp. That’s not everything, but it’s a start.

There’s also a rumour that we’re in talks with a striker from Japan and a centre back over there. So we’re hardly idle.

People want deals done quickly. They want flashy announcements.

But clearly, we’re not just sitting around with our thumbs up our backsides. Work is getting done. Progress is happening.

Nicholas doesn’t care about any of that.

He just wants to push another anti-Celtic narrative.

Not for the first time, and it won’t be the last. That’s why nobody at Celtic Park would let this guy near the building. He’s one of the most anti-Celtic voices in the media. The fact he once wore the shirt doesn’t change that—not one bit.