It’s well-established now that Celtic’s Alistair Johnston worked with Wilfried Nancy at Montreal.
But he isn’t the only Hoops hero to have worked with the incoming boss.
Ex-Celtic midfielder Victor Wanyama was a stalwart in the 2022 season, which saw Nancy guide the Canadian side to a third-place finish in the regular MLS table.
The season prior, Nancy had delivered the first silverware of his career, winning the Canadian Championship with Wanyama as captain.
Wanyama discussed his time under Nancy in an interview in February.
Celtic hero Victor Wanyama on his time working under Wilfried Nancy in MLS
Nancy had initially been assistant to Thierry Henry in Montreal, before being handed the full-time role in 2021.
After significantly improving the team’s fortunes, he earned the move to Columbus, much to Wanyama’s disappointment.
READ MORE: Proud Charlie Mulgrew’s amazing post about his son doing exactly as he did at Celtic
It’s clear that Nancy made an impact in Canada, with Wanyama singling him out when reflecting on his time at the club.
He told Telecom Asia: “I had a great time at Montreal, because it was a new experience for me.
“It is a bit different from England, where there is constant pressure to perform and get good results. In the MLS, it is not quite the same, because there are no issues like relegation and promotion and hence not much pressure on the teams there.
“But at Montreal we tried to have a different mentality, in terms of being competitive and trying to make history for the club.
“Unfortunately that didn’t take long, because the club kept changing coaches, and this made things a bit difficult.
“When we had French coach Wilfried [Nancy], we had really built something nice together, but when he left, it’s like we started from zero again.
“I had very good moments at Montreal. Some of the best moments we had included winning the Canadian Trophy by beating our rivals Toronto. This was such a historic moment for the club, and I am glad I was part of it.
“We also set several milestones for the club, like picking the highest number of points in the team’s history, as well as the most number of away wins ever.
“We brought in a new mentality into the team and this helped the club grow.”
Celtic’s pursuit of Wilfried Nancy
Martin O’Neill has confirmed that talks are progressing with an expectation that he will begin work on Monday, though there has still been no official announcement as of yet.
Nancy’s assistant, Kwame Ampadu, worked with Celtic’s Head of Football Operations Paul Tisdale at Exeter, putting the Frenchman on the club’s radar.
Despite names like Kieran McKenna and Kjetil Knutsen being in the running, Nancy has been the front-runner for some time now.
And if he can have a similar kind of impact in Glasgow to the one that Wanyama described, we will all be happy.
Martin O’Neill confirms Wilfried Nancy timeline
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
