If Michael Nicholson finds agents hard to deal with, the problem isn’t the agents.

There are moments when silence is wiser than speaking. For this Celtic board we’re now at the point where every word they utter only deepens the frustration already simmering among the support.

Michael Nicholson decided to explain Celtic’s transfer struggles. This time, according to the reported minutes from the meeting with the Association of Irish Celtic Supporters Clubs, the problem is agents. Competition from England. Players being difficult to convince.

Forgive me, but have we not heard this song before? It has become Celtic’s annual summer anthem, played on repeat until the transfer window finally slams shut and supporters are left wondering why so many obvious needs remain unanswered.

I simply do not understand why Michael Nicholson continues to present ordinary football obstacles as if they are unique to Celtic. Every football club negotiates with agents. Every football club competes with wealthier leagues. Every football club loses transfer targets.

That is not an excuse. That is football.

Negotiating with agents is not some unforeseen catastrophe that suddenly appeared to make Michael Nicholson’s life difficult. It is literally part of the job. It is what football executives are paid to do.

So, when Nicholson speaks about the “difficulty” of dealing with agents, I find myself asking a very uncomfortable question: if negotiating with agents is proving so difficult, then why is the man responsible for those negotiations still in the role?

Since other clubs manage it, the failure must lie squarely with Nicholson himself. I mean, that just stands to reason, does it not?

Somewhere along the line, Celtic have normalised failure.

Not dramatic failure. Not catastrophic failure. Just the slow, grinding acceptance that every transfer window must become a battle against ourselves before it ever becomes a battle against anyone else.

What frustrates me most is not even the comments themselves. It is the mentality behind them. Great football executives do not spend their summers explaining why transfers are difficult. They complete deals. The show the world how easy it is. We don’t have great football executives here. But the level of awfulness is alarming.

Sometimes I honestly wonder whether Nicholson sees his own explanations as reassuring. Because to me, they achieve precisely the opposite. Every time he speaks about obstacles instead of solutions, I hear something else entirely. “I could not get it done.”

Martin O’Neill’s reported comments struck me far more than Nicholson’s. The manager reportedly told those present that Celtic are in “major need of signings.”

Major. Not desirable. Not preferable. Necessary.

That confirms what every supporter has seen with their own eyes throughout pre-season. This squad still is not complete. It still lacks quality. It still lacks depth. It still carries too many unanswered questions.

And yet here we are, discussing why negotiations are difficult instead of celebrating new arrivals. Again. That word has become poisonous.

Every summer feels like déjà vu. The same promises. The same explanations. The same delays. The same pressure mounting as competitive football edges closer. Then we are told to remain patient.

Patience is a wonderful virtue. But we have run out of it.

One thing Martin O’Neill reportedly said deserves particular attention. He admitted that some of the players he wants are difficult to persuade to move to Glasgow.

Of course they are. Nobody sensible disputes that. But persuasion is also part of recruitment. Selling the project. Selling the ambition. Selling the opportunity to play Champions League football. Selling Celtic.

This is one of world football’s iconic institutions. A club supported across continents. A club with one of football’s richest histories. A club capable of giving players European nights that many English clubs can only dream about.

If we cannot sell that vision, then perhaps the problem lies not with Glasgow, but with those delivering the pitch.

This is where I become increasingly uncomfortable, because Michael Nicholson often speaks like an accountant trying to explain football rather than a football executive trying to build a football team. Those are two entirely different mindsets. One manages numbers. The other creates possibilities. Celtic need the latter.

I know some people will accuse supporters like me of being unfair. They will say negotiations are complex, transfers take time and agents ask for ridiculous commissions. I know all of that. Every supporter knows all of that.

The problem is not that transfers are difficult. The problem is that Celtic seem uniquely eager to tell us how difficult they are. And then to make them more difficult.

I sometimes think Celtic have become too comfortable celebrating financial stability while treating footballing ambition as something secondary.

Yet the two should strengthen one another. Money should exist to serve football. Football should never become subordinate to the balance sheet.

Martin O’Neill seems to understand that. His comments suggest urgency. His comments suggest he knows exactly what this squad lacks. His comments sound like a football manager. Nicholson’s sound like quarterly reporting.

There is an obvious disconnect there.

Perhaps the biggest question I keep asking myself is this: how many transfer windows does one individual get before we stop blaming circumstances and start examining performance?

Because if every summer ends with explanations about agents, if every window includes references to English competition, if every recruitment drive begins slowly, at what point does the common denominator become impossible to ignore?

Michael Nicholson has occupied one of the most important positions at Celtic for years now. His record is there for everyone to examine. A list of absolute failures. And every single time, the explanations arrive.

I do not expect perfection. No supporter should. Transfers collapse. Medicals fail. Players change their minds. Bigger clubs intervene. That is football.

But competence is measured not by the transfers that fail. It is measured by how consistently you overcome those failures.

Great recruitment departments always have alternatives. Always have contingency plans. Always move quickly when doors close. Because waiting for the perfect deal often leaves you with nothing.

This is Celtic Football Club. Not a club surviving from season to season. Not a club desperately hoping someone eventually says yes. This is a club with resources unmatched in Scotland, with Champions League football to offer, with the ability to pay substantial wages and with the power to transform careers.

It should behave like one.

Perhaps the saddest part of all this is that supporters are no longer shocked. We are exhausted. We have heard every explanation before. We have listened to every reassurance. We have been asked for patience countless times.

Michael Nicholson may genuinely believe that explaining the obstacles helps supporters understand the situation. For me, it has the opposite effect, because every explanation reminds me that these obstacles are exactly what his position exists to overcome.

That is the responsibility attached to being Celtic’s chief executive.

Not explaining why transfers are hard. Completing them.

If negotiating with agents has become an insurmountable obstacle, then perhaps we are asking the wrong question.

The question is not why agents are difficult. The question is whether the man negotiating with them is the right man to be doing so. For me, that question grows louder with every passing transfer window.

And until Michael Nicholson starts answering it with successful recruitment rather than familiar explanations, many supporters will continue to reach the same conclusion.

The problem was never the agents. The problem has always been the man sitting across the table from them.

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