Ryan Stevenson’s ridiculous Wilfried Nancy hit piece picked apart by Celtic hero Chris Sutton

Add as preferred source on Google

If Wilfried Nancy wasn’t already familiar with the madness of the Scottish media, he certainly will be now.

Celtic lost 2-1 to Hearts in his first game in charge on Sunday, in far from an ideal start to the Frenchman’s tenure.

But the reaction in the media has been quite something. Nancy’s use of a tactics board and his post-match comments have been subjects of intense focus.

Given that he had two days to work with the team prior to the match, it’s fair to say that this has been blown out of proportion. Former Hearts striker Ryan Stevenson took it even further on Tuesday, even having a go at Nancy’s trainers.

Chris Sutton, Stevenson’s colleague at the Daily Record, has firmly put him in his place.

Celtic hero Chris Sutton slates Ryan Stevenson over Wilfried Nancy hit piece

The article was one of several to have been released this week which, instead of focusing on Nancy’s actual on-field approach, focused on ‘optics’ instead.

It’s been quite revealing on just how closed-minded and conservative Scottish football truly is.

READ MORE: Arne Engels admits he challenged Brendan Rodgers over lack of Celtic game time

In response to the piece, Sutton took to X to set about his Daily Record colleague, who launched an absolute attack on the Hoops boss after just one game.

He said: “Having a go at Wilfried Nancy for wearing green trainers and bringing out a tactics board (to try to get a message across to his players who he has barely coached)…

“Is one of the dumbest and most backward takes I’ve ever heard…”

The media narrative is a blatant attempt to turn Celtic fans against their own manager after just one game – it’s brazen stuff.

The Martin O’Neill situation is nothing to do with Nancy – it’s important to remember this as people try to use this as a stick to beat him with.

And in making Nancy a target, the mainstream media are only accelerating the Celtic fans’ unification in backing him.

Ryan Stevenson’s attack on Wilfried Nancy after Celtic vs Hearts

His lack of allegiance to Celtic is the most obviously telling reason why Stevenson’s views on Nancy are disingenuous.

He said: “There’s a certain DNA to clubs like Celtic. So when a new manager arrives and starts pulling out tactics boards and green trainers you have to ask yourself, ‘What are we actually dealing with here?’.

“I’m not even a Celtic fan but I’m absolutely raging about what I’ve seen from Nancy in his first day in the job.

“If he doesn’t learn quickly and stop making the same mistakes then I’m afraid this job is going to eat him up and spit him back out before he even knows it. The vibe I’m getting is that this simply is not going to work.”

Bring on Nancy’s response.