Celtic CEO issues 'absolutely solid' assurance to Wilfried Nancy and reveals assaults on colleagues

The Parkhead CEO made the claim as he addressed the shock resignation of chairman Peter Lawwell, who has confirmed he is to stand down from the board on December 31 due to "intolerable" levels of "abuse and threats".

Nicholson slammed the "unacceptable behaviour" of a "very small minority of Celtic supporters" during an interview with Celtic TV, which was broadcast on the eve of the Scottish Premiership match against Dundee United at Tannadice on Wednesday evening.

"It was a decision which weighed heavily on him," Nicholson said of Lawwell's impending departure. "It's not an easy decision but he's made it for himself and his family because of the abuse and threats that were directed towards him.

"Those are behaviours we have seen from perhaps a very small minority of the Celtic support that are completely unacceptable. Most recently we had a situation where three of our colleagues were assaulted at Celtic Park on Sunday after the match and these behaviours and conduct are completely unacceptable.

"For me they are not Celtic. they don't sit with the values of Celtic supporters and the Celtic family. As a board it strengthens our resolve to do the right thing for Celtic and take this club forward together for the future."

Nicholson also addressed the poor start made by new manager Wilfried Nancy - who lost his first three matches in charge against Hearts, Roma and St Mirren - and assured the Frenchman that he has the "absolutely solid" support of the board.

"It's not even two weeks ago when we spoke about Wilfried and his appointment," Nicholson said. "There is never an easy time to start at Celtic and it has been challenging. We've had some disappointing results, not least on Sunday.

"In that respect I understand that the Celtic support are concerned about where we are. I understand and respect the right of every supporter to express their discontent and share that with us. But we know where we want to go and step-by-step all of our job is to support Wiilfried, his team and the squad to take us to where we want to get to.

"The starting point is now. I met with Wilfried this week to discuss recruitment ahead of the January transfer window and also looking ahead to the summer transfer window because we know we have a project to suppot here.

“We're excited about where we're going to get to. That's going to take time, both day-to-day within the training environment, but also month to month, window to window. We know that when we get to that stage in the summer, hopefully having had success this season, we'll be looking ahead to next season with great optimism with Wilfried and his team."