Imagine if Celtic didn’t appoint Wilfried Nancy?
Yes, Brendan Rodgers was always going to leave. His relationship with the Celtic board had gone beyond boiling point, so it was a matter of when, not if.
But Martin O’Neill had come in, and as Simon Jordan put it, ‘switched the light on’, only for it all to come crumbling down under Nancy.
To nobody’s surprise, Celtic are back on the winning train under O’Neill, including against Falkirk at the weekend, and Jordan wanted answers to the dramatic change.
What do you think is the main reason Wilfried Nancy couldn’t buy a win as Celtic manager? 🤔
The stats are damning…
Martin O’Neill pushed on Wilfried Nancy’s time at Celtic
Speaking on talkSPORT, Jordan didn’t want O’Neill to ‘talk badly’ about Nancy, but just try to sum up why he could get the same players winning games, and it was the complete opposite under the Frenchman.
Celtic’s legendary coach stated, ‘I genuinely do not know’, but Jordan, as well as host Jim White, were not having that answer and told him, ‘Yes, you do.’
Perhaps this is O’Neill being protective or too nice to Nancy, but you sense he does know the answer, but he just didn’t want to answer it.
Simon Jordan: “What’s the light switch? There is a light switch. You turn the light switch on when you go to Celtic after Brendan departs, and get the team playing.
“In comes Nancy, I am not asking you to talk badly about another manager. But it goes dark. You come back in again, and the light comes on again.
“What is it you are doing differently from what he did? And what are the players responding to that they didn’t clearly respond to him with?”
O’Neill: “I genuinely do not know.”
Jordan: “Yes, you do.”
Jim White: “Yes, you do, Martin.”
O’Neill: “No, I genuinely do not know. I really don’t. I think you are aware, both of you, that when your confidence is drained, and you aren’t getting a few results, then even the ability that you know you have seems to disappear.”
Jordan: “But it’s a light switch, Martin. You turned it on when you went in there the first time around, and it got turned off instantaneously when the other fella walked out. You go back in the door, it gets turned back on again, instantaneously.”
O’Neill: “I think you are well aware, Simon, that I have the phenomenal ability of turning the switch light off again. Very, very easily.”
Nancy and O’Neill’s records compared this season
Celtic’s January signing, Tomas Cvancara, scored against Falkirk over the weekend; other than that, O’Neill and Nancy have worked with the same crop of players this season.
They also had to deal with the same issues, such as Cameron Carter-Vickers and Alistair Johnston being injured long-term. Kelechi Iheanacho’s injury issues. And no proper goalscorer.
Yet, the results on the pitch speak volumes.
- Nancy’s games: 8
- Wins: 2
- Draws: 0
- Losses: 6
- Goals scored: 11
- Goals conceded: 18
- Points per match: 0.75
- O’Neill’s games: 15
- Wins: 12
- Draws: 2
- Losses: 1
- Goals scored: 36
- Goals conceded: 12
- Points per match: 2.53
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