Whilst Wilfried Nancy had to leave Celtic, many supporters will have the view that he was on a hiding to nothing coming to the club when it was in disarray.
With Celtic fans at loggerheads with the board, a summer transfer window that significantly weakened the team and following on from Martin O’Neill’s brief but successful spell, Nancy had a lot to live up to and a lot of background noise to contend with.
The Frenchman was also determined to play his own system despite Celtic not having the players to implement it properly and it was that stubbornness that effectively cost him his job.
With six defeats in eight fixtures, Celtic sacked Nancy and now, Chris Sutton shares if he had sympathy for the coach after getting just 33 days in one of the biggest jobs in football.
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Sutton’s sympathy for Wilfried Nancy despite ‘trashing’ the Celtic team
The former Celtic striker was one of Nancy’s biggest critics, but even Sutton admits that he felt sorry for the situation the former Columbus Crew boss found himself in.
Sutton told the Monday Night Club, “I do, on the face of it, people down town think eight games, that isn’t enough.
“And in general, I would agree with that, but he also has to understand that he needed to adapt, he needed to change.
“Celtic have played with the back four ever since I can remember, and he came in halfway through a season with a squad, in truth, which is pretty incapable, and he trashed the team.”
Martin O’Neill got Celtic ‘results’ Wilfried Nancy couldn’t
Ultimately, Nancy couldn’t get the same kind of results that Martin O’Neill did with the same group of players and that was one of the Frenchman’s biggest downfalls.
Sutton continued, “Martin tweaked the team, Martin tweaked the team from Brendan Rodgers, and he made various subtle changes over his eight games.
“I don’t care, I get an argument from lots of Celtic fans about this, because, you know, Martin did a good job, but Celtic weren’t playing unbelievable football under Martin O’Neill, and Martin was aware of that.
“But he came in and he tried to play away, and the justification for all that change is if you’re getting the results”
No doubt Nancy will move on to another club and likely land back in the MLS. As for O’Neill, he has a huge task ahead of him to keep Celtic’s season on track starting this weekend against Dundee United.
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