Celtic fans’ opinions on Wilfried Nancy are already split.
In truth, none are truly valid after two games, even if those two games happened to be very high-profile.
Actually, that’s the point. It’s difficult to overstate how absurdly timed the appointment of Nancy has turned out to be, given what we’ve seen from his team so far.
Nancy’s system isn’t inept, though it may feel like that after two poor results. It’s just very, very different.
And Celtic have put him in charge of the biggest week of their season so far, fully knowing that he was going to implement it instantly.
Was Wilfried Nancy right to instantly implement his 3-4-3 at Celtic?
Celtic’s hiring of Wilfried Nancy
If Celtic wanted the team to keep playing the way they were under Martin O’Neill, they would’ve kept Martin O’Neill.
But in looking to make the change as quickly as possible, the club have already paid a hefty price… and it could get heftier.
READ MORE: Wilfried Nancy gives straight answer on convincing Celtic fans he is ‘the right guy’
This is not an attempt to liberate Nancy of his responsibilities – it’s simply a reminder of much-needed context.
It’s surely now beyond doubt that the club should not have forced this through last week, regardless of whether Nancy was going to instantly change the system or not.
Had Martin O’Neill stayed on a bit longer and lost to Hearts, it still would’ve punctured the team’s momentum – but not nearly as much as it did with Nancy, given the inevitable question of “what if we kept Martin?” that has plagued conversations since.
And regardless of the result in Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup final against St Mirren, we will look back on this week as an unnecessarily stressful risk.
Celtic fans will never sit patiently through defeats, and nor should they. The Celtic manager will never be exempt from criticism, and nor should they.
Criticisms of Nancy’s use of Yang Hyun-Jun and Sebastian Tounekti as wing-backs are totally fair – but whatever your opinions are on his 3-4-3, it’s here to stay.
And from their conversations with Nancy, the Celtic board should have known better than to throw him into this.
Have the Celtic board set Wilfried Nancy up to fail?
Wilfried Nancy is still the man for Celtic
Nancy is not an expert on Scottish football, but this doesn’t mean that he won’t be a good hire for Celtic.
It does mean that the team will struggle until they are in his image – and this will only happen through two things that are impossible at the moment: training and transfers.
Because – I repeat – this is the manager that Nancy has been hired to be. He is here to be the coach that he is, with a squad that is very much not his, and virtually no time to coach them.
It’s a ridiculous situation that is very fitting of how this season has gone.
But there’s no going back now – we just need to hope that an embryonic Nancy-led team has enough to win a cup final… and despite our fears, Celtic clearly do.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
