The majority of Celtic supporters are now questioning the appointment of Wilfried Nancy and here, we question the wisdom of CEO Michael Nicholson’s announcement at the time.
Nancy was brought to the club after the shock resignation of former Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers forced the Hoops to turn to Martin O’Neill.
While O’Neill was looking after the first team affairs, that gave the Celtic board plenty of breathing space to scour the top leagues in Europe and beyond to find their new boss.
Michael Nicholson voices support for Wilfried Nancy’s Celtic ‘project’
Rodgers resigned on the 27th of October and Nancy was appointed on the 5th of December. That gave Celtic 38 days to find a new manager.
So that would mean that the club would have scoured the globe, right? Maybe not as we look back at what Nicholson said at Nancy’s unveiling (if we can actually call it that), that has now left the Celtic board brutally exposed.
Michael Nicholson’s proud admission about Celtic’s pursuit of Wilfried Nancy
It appears that from Nicholson’s original statement that Celtic only looked at one candidate and one candidate only.
Let’s take a look back.
Nicholson said of the Celtic manager, “We have been aware of Wilfried and his quality of work for some time – he was our number one candidate when we began the process of appointing a new Manager and we are delighted that he has agreed to join the club.
“I know he is hugely excited about this opportunity to be part of Celtic’s future. We will give Wilfried every support to face the challenges ahead, with our aim as always being to deliver the success for the club which our supporters deserve, this season and beyond.”
And now that the appointment appears to be going pear shaped, we delve into what exactly made Nancy the ‘number one candidate’ and scrutinise Nicholson’s claim of the ‘quality of work’ that elevated the 49-year-old to such a high opinion of those in the Parkhead boardroom.
What evidence did the Celtic board see in Wilfried Nancy as the ‘number one candidate’?
Wilfried Nancy’s arrival at Celtic was heralded by many in the MLS as some sort of coup for the Scottish champions.
Many in the US league believed that the Frenchman was one of the top coaches in the country, which is presumably why the Celtic board targeted him?
But the cold, hard evidence was staring Celtic in the face about the former Columbus Crew boss, as a simple look at his past results at Nancy’s old club tells a story of its own.
A simple check of Transfermarkt shows that not only is Nancy’s win percentage not good enough, he was also on a miserable run of results that constitutes relegation form, if the MLS had that jeopardy.
| Wilfried Nancy | Played | Won | Drew | Lost | Goals For:Against |
| Columbus Crew | 136 | 71 | 32 | 33 | 282 : 201 |
A win rate of 52% is not bad going, but when you drill into those results, the red flags were already there.
In his previous 20 fixtures for Columbus Crew, Nancy had won just seven. The Frenchman lost eight and drew five.
Before his arrival at Celtic, Nancy had two wins in eight with Columbus mid-table. Tucked within those results were a 5-4 win at Atlanta and a 6-4 defeat to Toluca.
Out of the 20 fixtures, Nancy kept just two clean sheets and conceded an incredible 47 goals. In what way did this kind of form make him Celtic’s number one choice?
And if that claim is correct, why did Celtic not complete a full and rigorous search for a replacement for Brendan Rodgers. That is not being ‘world-class in everything we do’.
That smacks of a Celtic board who looked at the first candidate and ran with it. Looking at the Hoops’ form right now, it appears that at least Nancy is consistent.
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