‘GIVE ME TIME,’ IMPLORES NANCY

WILFRIED NANCY has implored his detractors to give him time as he attempts to settle into the manager’s job at Celtic.

The Frenchman has been roundly criticised for imposing a new system on his players midway through the season and the results have shown a massive backfire.

The champions have lost five of the seven games in which Nancy has been in charge in the worst start in the club’s history for a new team chief.

The latest reverse came against Motherwell at Fir Park on Tuesday night when the visitors were embarrassingly swept aside by the hosts who controlled most of the 90 minutes.

Pressure is piling up on the former Columbus Crew head coach as the mainly miserable performances are churned out game by game.

The players are struggling and nine precious Premiership points have been discarded from a possible 15 and they now face Danny Rohl’s Ibrox team at Parkhead tomorrow afternoon in another testing encounter in the east end of Glasgow.

Nancy didn’t hold back at the media conference before the second league derby of the campaign and said: “As you know, I need time. Give me time and you’re going to see what I can do.

“You can already see what I did before because I didn’t start yesterday. Tomorrow is a big game.

“But the context is that I’ve only had 13 training sessions with my team. Usually, we have four weeks of pre-season.

“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.”

Defending his tactics, Nancy argued his favoured 3-4-3 formation has only been responsible for one goal since his arrival early last month.

Nancy, speaking to Sky Sports, said: “I don’t play with a back five, so it is useless to talk about this. The way we defend, most of the time, this is a back four. Or it could be a back three.

“I never said I was a back-five guy. I’ve played with a back four, a back three or a back two. This is only the beginning.

“The fans want us to win games and do well. We know that. We want to do well for the club, the players and the fans. I know these games are important.”

The 48-year-old former Columbus Crew head coach continued: “Everybody can talk. I am who I am. We are so focused on results. When we win, we are happy and when we lose, this is difficult to accept.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself to be good and to make the right decisions.

“I’m not here to change the opinion of anybody. I’m here to do what’s best. I’m here to help the team win and then, after that, the opinion can change – or not.

“I have my job to do and you’re asking me to think about what people think about me?

“No. I know depending on what we do how everything can go. I want the best for the club and my players.

Images courtesy Celtic TV.

“I cannot control the noise. I would like the noise to be nice. When we won two games, the noise was better.

“We lost the last game, so the noise is back to normal, I would say. I’m not afraid of that.”

Eyeing the assorted pressmen at the conference, Nancy added: “I know your job is to attack me or to ask a lot of questions. No problem with that. My job is to be a coach, your job is to ask questions.

“This is only the beginning. Usually, we have four or five weeks of pre-season. I didn’t have that.

“The reality is before I came, I knew if I didn’t win games, I was going to be in trouble.

“This is part of the job. I’m pleased to be here and I know where we are now.”