‘YEAH, MY ASS IS BURNING…I AM NOT INVINCIBLE,’ NANCY’S LATEST BULLETIN

IT WON’T go down as one of football’s most stirring speeches or memorable motivational quotes.

After three losses in his first three games as Celtic manager, Wilfried Nancy prepared for the crucial Premiership encounter against Dundee United at Tannadice this evening with an interesting observation.

“Yeah, my ass is burning,” revealed the Frenchman who is already under extreme pressure following a 2-1 debut loss to Hearts, a 3-0 Europa League flop against AS Roma – both at Parkhead – and the 3-1 reverse to St Mirren in the Premier Sports League Cup Final at Hampden on Sunday.

It is by far the worst record in the club’s history for an incoming team chief.

A defiant Nancy insists he doesn’t have “to prove anything to anybody”, as CQN reported yesterday, but he must know there is no hiding place as the champions’ boss as they face Jim Goodwin’s side on Tayside already trailing Hearts by six points although they have two games in hand.

The 48-year-old former Columbus Crew head coach said: “I’m grateful to be here because Celtic is Celtic. It’s as simple as that. But again, it comes back to results.

“I am craving to win games – not to shut the mouth of everybody. I don’t do this battle.

“But just for my players, just for the board, just for the club. For me, life is like that. People might think I’m an idealist as a person, but not at all. “I know exactly who I am and exactly where I want to go. And I know at this moment, yeah, my ass is burning! But stay strong and do what you need to do to be better.”

Nancy is adamant he has not been shocked by the angry response by the fans to the crushing hat-trick from hell and, speaking to the Daily Record, continued: “No, because this is my job. This is a normal reaction. Don’t forget that I come from Europe, so I know the way it works.

“To be fair, also in MLS it’s the same. Not with the same intensity, obviously, but I’ve been a player also, so I have no problem with that. They can say what they want and I understand that.

“After that, do I accept or not, that’s not the topic. The topic is to be good with my players, to be good on the practice and to be good also during the game to win games.

“It’s as simple as that. I have to just be coherent with my team and to do my job as the best as I can. And after that, I think that things are going to be more positive.

“It’s been 10 days that I’ve been here. Like I said, I knew that before I came here that it could be difficult regarding the situation, regarding the fact that this is the first time for everyone to have a coach who comes in the middle of the season like this.

“So I knew that it could be a lot of adversity, but again, like I said, I’m really happy to be here.

“I do my job as the best as I can and after that, things will go in a more positive way.”

Nancy added: “It has been really rough and I just have received maybe 100 messages from people, friends asking me: ‘Are you okay? You have to stay strong, you have done it before.’.

“I’m grateful for that, but, like I said, it’s going to come naturally. Again, understand me well, I am not invincible. But I know what I want to do and I know every day I can see improvements.

“After that, hopefully you will see what I am – and what we are – capable of.”

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