Wilfried Nancy’s appointment at Celtic couldn’t have gone much worse.
Nancy was brought to Glasgow from Columbus Crew ahead of the biggest week of their season, with Michael Nicholson saying he was the ‘number one candidate’.
Four straight defeats later, Celtic fans were already calling for his removal.
Martin O’Neill’s interim spell had reinstalled some much-needed confidence among the Celtic players, keeping the same system but upping the tempo.
But Nancy’s instant revolution just felt horrifically ill-timed, as Michael Stewart has been discussing.
What message would you send Wilfried Nancy as Celtic sack the manager?
Michael Stewart on Wilfried Nancy at Celtic
Nancy had to fit square pegs in round holes in order to instantly implement his 3-4-3 system, leaving the team exposed in his early matches.
Celtic paid the price for this with six defeats in eight games before Nancy’s rapid sacking on Saturday.
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The situation felt like a mess on and off the field; exactly what Celtic didn’t need in a tumultuous season.
And for Stewart, the whole thing was a symptom of ‘marketeering’ from Nancy and the MLS that Celtic had ‘bought into’,
He told BBC Sportsound: “I heard a lot of the clips of Wilfried Nancy talking about ‘Impossible is an opinion’ that was pumped out by Columbus Crew.
“It’s not as if we are immune to that stuff here as well.
“But I do genuinely believe that Celtic bought into this marketeering hype about a guy that for me was shown to fundamentally lack the basics.
“You can talk about systems, you can talk about tactics – this is basic.
“It doesn’t matter what system you play, it doesn’t matter about what tactics you employ, you cannot have a side like Celtic that is so exposed.
“It wasn’t just one game, two games, it was every game, against any opponent.
“They didn’t have to do anything inventive other than basically get the ball up to the other end of the park and they are running through on goal.
“That isn’t bad luck, that’s just pathetic coaching.”
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Wilfried Nancy’s ill-fated Celtic spell
Nancy was brought in ahead of a daunting run of Celtic fixtures, with a top-of-the-table clash, European glamour tie and a Premier Sports Cup final in his first week.
He might’ve been forgiven for the odd slip-up – but with four defeats in his first four matches, he set the alarm bells off already.
Celtic hadn’t created a shortage of chances in those games, and finally got the rewards for their attacking against Aberdeen and Livingston.
But the 2-0 defeat to Motherwell was the worst performance yet, and after the 3-1 Glasgow Derby loss to Rangers, the writing was on the wall.
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