WILFRIED NANCY has a fondness for using the expression “step by step” when he discusses Celtic’s progress – if that is the accurate word – since his arrival seven games ago.
There are obvious dangers when you continue to utilise the same phrase, especially when you are operating on a cliff top.
At some stage you will run out of terra firma. One more step will most assuredly lead to a vanishing act.
That is the point of no return.
Whether the Frenchman is aware of it or not, that is the steady course the former Columbus Crew head coach has been inexorably travelling since he arrived on these shores.
Inexplicably, he attempted to impose a favoured system on a set of players a mere 48 hours after first setting foot in Lennoxtown. It was a monumental faux pas that would inevitably open the door to errors.
The champions were cast adrift in an ocean of miscast players with new instructions thrust upon them and Hearts sat back and capitalised. Wee Derek McInnes’ grin was as wide at the Clyde at Greenock when Nancy predictably adopted the same tactics he had used in the MLS.
It wasn’t an awe-inspiring first impression. Celtic could have gone top of the Premiership that afternoon when a win would have given them a three-point advantage over the Edinburgh side.
A bewilderingly awful display allowed the visitors to pick up a 2-1 victory and everyone hoped the defeat would act as an early wake-up call for Nancy.
Unfortunately, the manager was doing a fair impersonation of Rip Van Winkle and slept through a 3-0 Europa League loss to AS Roma at Parkhead, hastily followed by a 3-1 Premier Sports League Cup Final defeat against St Mirren and then a fourth reverse at Tannadice when the team blundered to a 2-1 loss to Dundee United.
Following the worst start in history of any Celtic team chief, the patience of the fans snapped on Tayside and Nancy was invited to leave the premises as the well-thumbed songbook with the somewhat dodgy lyrics came into play.
A 3-1 win over an Aberdeen team forced to play with 10 men throughout the second-half and a 4-2 victory over rock-bottom Livingston who scored twice in eight minutes stopped the rot.
For three days, anyway.
Worryingly, Nancy revealed he had been studying Motherwell and the change in their style under Jens Berthel Askou. He was prepared for the way they would be set out to play by their Danish coach.
That admission made it even worse that Celtic were distressingly played off the pitch in the opening 45 minutes where the hosts scored one, could have added two more and the visitors did not have a solitary attempt of any kind on their opponents’ goal.
We can only wonder how the team might have fared if the manager hadn’t been prepared.
As well as taking things “step by step”, Nancy likes to inform us of the “good things” he sees in the games, even when the scoreline fails to reflect that optimism.
Now we have Danny Rohl and his Govan outfit crossing the city for tomorrow’s derby encounter to kick off the 2026 campaign.
This time last year, a lamentable Celtic team failed to turn up at Ibrox and were turned over 3-0 by a distinctly average home side who lost 1-0 to Queen’s Park at the same venue five weeks later to exit the Scottish Cup.
Philippe Clement was axed shortly afterwards when St Mirren also won in the league in Glasgow.
Brendan Rodgers played down the earlier loss and merely accused his players of being “too passive”. Disturbingly, he also saw the champions-elect lose 3-2 at Parkhead in March to the Ibrox team, led at that stage by caretaker gaffer Barry Ferguson who displayed a hitherto unknown tactical genius to outwit his dug-out opponent.
There were also losses to St Johnstone, who would go on to be relegated, and Hibs while points were shed in draws with Dundee (3-3), Rangers (1-1) and St Mirren (1-1). Luckily, the Hoops had built up a substantial lead in the first half of the season to hold onto the title for a fourth successive year.
The crusade ended on a downer with a calamitous Scottish Cup Final penalty-kick loss to Aberdeen where the opportunity of a world record ninth domestic treble was buried under the rubble of mediocrity.
Five months later, Rodgers was on his way after back-to-back league losses to Dundee and Hearts as his reputation took a pummelling.
And that brings us to Wilfried Nancy via interim manager Martin O’Neill who completed his second stint at the club with seven wins in eight games.
Okay, a few of the performances under the charming Irishman were hardly inspirational, but the team had found a formula to somehow grind out victories. That is the surefire sign of winners.
Celtic, under the leadership of Nancy, have lost that presence.
Tomorrow would be a more then suitable time to go some way to reclaiming that precious commodity.
Just so long as our ears are not tortured by a monotonous monologue of “step by step” from the Celtic manager while the points are being spirited across the city.
If that develops into the case, then freefall beckons with a nasty landing in prospect.
ALEX GORDON
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