THERE was something deeply disturbing about Wilfried Nancy’s extraordinary seven-minute monologue during yesterday’s media conference ahead of this afternoon’s derby encounter at Parkhead.
In an impassioned speech, the Frenchman grasped the opportunity to plead for time after five losses in his first seven games.
The anticipated condemnation has come his way from critics and cynics alike after such a depressing sequence of results in which the champions have shed nine Premiership points, blown the opportunity of silverware and dropped further behind in the pursuit of a Europa League lifeline.
Nancy appears to be taking observations from the press to heart with remarks such as: “It’s totally normal that you guys kill me. I’m fine with that because I know where I want to go. Judge me in a few weeks or months.”
It’s as sad as it is perplexing that the former Columbus Crew head coach is making such bizarre requests.
THE FACE OF DESPAIR…Wilfried Nancy at Fir Park on Tuesday evening.
Instead of looking ahead with positivity to the first all-Glasgow affair of 2026, Nancy is already on the back foot. Maybe not quite a dead man talking, but edging perilously close to the utterances of someone festooned with dread.
What’s really worrying is the fact the manager looks surprised at the reaction to the alarming setbacks since his arrival on these shores. I can only believe the 48-year-old gaffer, who spent four years in the relatively calm backwaters of the MLS in Ohio and Montreal, was not prepared for what lay ahead.
Nancy looks as though he was totally ill prepared for the scrutiny he would face and the intensity that would come with it when he stepped through the doors at Celtic Park early last month.
That being the case, it’s hardly the newcomer’s fault he was ignorant of the expectation levels that would be demanded at a club with worldwide appeal.
Presumably, he is a bright enough individual to have worked out some of this for himself. While the visa wrangle with the government went on in the background during Martin O’Neill’s eight-game interim period, there was ample time for the incomer and his entourage to brush up on all things Celtic.
A guiding hand at that stage would have been imperative and of vital importance and an urgent necessity for Nancy.
Apparently, his meeting with O’Neill at the changeover took all of fifteen minutes. He may not have been dismissive of the 73-year-old Irishman, but we have been reassured Nancy believed it was more important to talk about his plans for the team and not what O’Neill had achieved in his short-term stint following the abrupt exit of Brendan Rodgers.
THE LONG WALK…Wilfried Nancy heads for the Fir Park dressing room as Motherwell players celebrate.
If he had apent more time with the second time-around manager, Nancy may have been warned of the sheer folly of tampering with a system with which the current players were reasonably comfortable.
The swift verbal discourse between O’Neill and Nancy didn’t include the Frenchman’s plans to restructure the formation.
It was his way or the highway. And here we are today.
Just four days after the Motherwell fans, watching their team coast to their first victory at Fir Park over Celtic since April 2013, gleefully serenaded the faltering champions with that delightful little ditty “This is too f*****’ easy”, Nancy now has to forget about what may – or may not – irk him on a personal level and attempt to get his players in the right frame of mind for another crucial confrontation.
We would all have liked to have welcomed Nancy to Glasgow with bells and whistles and resounding acclaim.
That’s the fantasy. This is real life. Nancy does not have that precious commodity of time to put everything in order over the next weeks and months.
Football is a results-driven business and there can be no argument the new man has failed to deliver or convince.
This afternoon in the east end of Glasgow, Nancy will get another opportunity to show he possesses the nous and quality to turn things around at Celtic.
I hope he takes it.
Bon chance, Wilfried!
ALEX GORDON
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