A week is a long time in football, and that’s proof when it comes to Wilfried Nancy and Celtic.
Only last week, Sam Allardyce was digging at Celtic’s new boss after losing at home to Hearts, including calling him a ‘school teacher.’
They were rather disrespectful jibes from the experienced English coach, but his main gripe was around Nancy changing Celtic’s system.
Fast forward to the present, and Celtic have lost to AS Roma in the Europa League, as well as St Mirren in the League Cup final, so how is Allardyce feeling now?
Sum up Wilfried Nancy’s media handling in one word…
Sam Allardyce continues to criticise Wilfried Nancy after horror start as Celtic boss
Allardyce was told by host Natalie Pike that the Celtic supporters ‘weren’t happy’ with both of them for how they spoke about Nancy after the Hearts match.
But he thinks that his comments are now ‘justified’ given where Celtic are right now with their new manager ahead of the Premiership clash against Dundee United on Wednesday night.
Pike: “I wasn’t going to bring up Celtic this week, because we have spoken about them for the last couple of weeks. But I don’t know if you know Sam, but the Celtic fans weren’t happy with you and I last week because of what we said about Wilfried Nancy.”
Allardyce: “Are we justified?”
Pike: “I think the last week has shown that we were probably justified. But driving into the podcast today, I heard Martin O’Neill on talkSPORT. He did a fascinating hour-long interview with them. He was very diplomatic. The Celtic fans were calling up begging him to come back.
“He said that, ‘if he was asked, he would go back.’ I feel like we are going to see him back at Celtic at the end of the season.”
Allardyce: “I think when you get these coaches that have got this philosophy. Like (Ruben) Amorim. It’s so inflexible. Do you know what I mean? I have seen everybody. I have played against them as a manager and competed against them. They have all changed.”
Pike: “He changed Martin’s system.”
Allardyce: “I used to talk to Sir Alex (Ferguson) about football and how many changes he used to make. He said, ‘We would only need slight changes because we were good enough to beat most.’
“The fact of the matter is, they have got the coaching philosophy, and you will only play one way. What about if he keeps failing? Are you going to carry on doing it?”
Allardyce responds to Nancy only spending ’15 minutes’ with Martin O’Neill
As many of the Celtic fans would have seen, O’Neill spoke about Nancy on talkSPORT, how everything came about, including talking with the Frenchman.
But when O’Neill shared that he only spoke with Nancy for ’15 minutes’, it shocked Allardyce, who couldn’t help but aim another jibe at the Celtic boss, and how he was probably ‘busy on his tactics board.’
Either way, whilst Celtic fans defended Nancy after his first game, the issue now is you can only defend so much, and if he continues to lose, then you really do start to worry.
Pike: “I am going to finish off this podcast by saying, Martin O’Neill said on talkSPORT that he had 15 minutes with Wilfried Nancy, and that was it.”
Allardyce: “Is that it?”
Pike: “I thought that was shocking.”
Allardyce: “Shocking.”
Pike: “If you are Wilfried Nancy and you have just come to Celtic, why are you not asking Martin O’Neill for as many minutes, hours and days you can have to pick his brains?!”
Allardyce: “He will be too busy on his tactics board, won’t he?!”
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