Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy has the full support of the board despite losing their opening four games.
Pressure is mounting on the new manager after losses to Hearts, Roma, St Mirren and Dundee United in his first 15 days in charge. This is the worst performance since 1978.
Nancy had routine chats with the club’s hierarchy, discussing future plans, recruitment, adapting to life in Scotland and wider topics around security.
Nancy trained as usual at Lennoxtown as the Hoops prepared to face Aberdeen at Celtic Park on Sunday.
Nancy joined Celtic from Columbus Crew.
Sky Sports News He knows club chiefs are on board with Nancy’s vision for Celtic and have fully supported his desire to change the system immediately.
They believe they are getting a better idea of which players among the current squad can adapt to the new system in order to focus on areas of recruiting need in the January and summer transfer windows.
This was reiterated yesterday when CEO Michael Nicholson told Celtic TV he had held talks with Nancy about recruitment over the next two transfer windows.
Many Celtic fans called for Nancy to leave during last night’s 2-1 defeat to Dundee United at Tannadice. There were also chants of “Martin O’Neill”, who took over as the club’s interim manager following the shocking departure of Brendan Rodgers, and won seven out of eight games.
Nancy, 48, was appointed by Columbus Crew on the recommendation of Paul Tisdale, Celtic’s director of football operations.
Tisdale is currently on holiday but is said to be in close contact with club staff as they work towards the January transfer window.
Sutton: ‘Nancy’s method doesn’t work’
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Sky Sports pundits Chris Sutton and Kris Boyd discuss Wilfried Nancy’s start to life at Celtic after four spells in charge.
After Wednesday’s defeat, former Celtic striker Chris Sutton admitted he sympathized with Nancy for the position he found himself in, but admitted his methods had not been working since taking the reigns from Martin O’Neill.
“I have tremendous sympathy for him,” Sutton said. “Celtic are not in pre-season and if Nancy had had the whole pre-season you would have seen things unfold differently.
“He doesn’t have it. He’s saying he doesn’t have time, so it’s going to be incredibly difficult to get this side going.
Nancy lost her first four games as Celtic manager.
“The confidence of certain players has dropped since Martin O’Neill left. The bottom line from Celtic and the whole season is that it’s not working.
“He needs to get his team to perform and give the fan base some faith. Sunday will be really interesting, the atmosphere inside Celtic Park and how it goes.
“Celtic need to win the league this season to qualify for the Champions League and that is the most important thing.
“The difference between Glasgow football and every other football is that once the fan base turns on the manager, that’s it and I don’t know if we’ve gone too far. “That’s the problem for Nancy and that’s what will be fascinating on Sunday (at home to Aberdeen).
Sutton questioned whether Nancy had underestimated the task at hand before Dundee United’s defeat.
“I think he should have come in and taken care of the situation. I don’t think he necessarily would have done that. He came in and said, ‘I’m going to be the coach and do it my way.’”
“Well, at this moment Wilf’s way isn’t working and that’s the problem.
“I think Nancy has the qualities as a coach and you see the rotations and his ideas, he came in and changed things.
“He said he spoke to Martin O’Neill and spoke to him for 15 minutes. He said before the game, ‘Martin has his way and I have mine’. We’ve lost four games on the spin, so his way isn’t working.”
‘What to focus on’ – The Venn diagram that created a storm
Wilfried Nancy’s Venn diagram sparked a huge backlash from Celtic fans on social media.
Ahead of the match at Tannadice Park, Nancy was seen updating her profile picture to an X in a Venn diagram with the captions: “What you can control” and “What matters”. Then there was an arrow pointing to the center of the diagram labeled “Things to focus on.”
The context-free image appeared to be a subtle response to the uproar over his future at Celtic Park just two weeks after taking office, with some in the fan base already calling for his departure.
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Former Celtic midfielder Stiliyan Petrov has spoken about Wilfried Nancy’s winless start to Celtic and whether the new manager will be given time to turn things around.
Once fans noticed the profile changes, it quickly went viral and the account was eventually made private.
Nancy later claimed that the photo in question had nothing to do with Celtic and was linked to her time with the Columbus Crew.
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Celtic manager Wilfrid Nancy believes his side are heading in the right direction despite losing their fourth game in a row with a 2-1 loss to Dundee United.
“My wife was upset, and to be honest, believe it or not, the profile had something about Columbus,” he said. BBC Sports.
“So my
“It’s that simple. So it’s not a mistake or anything. I don’t want to make it such a simple battle.
“I did it because my picture was looking upstairs in the locker room in Columbus, so I wanted to change what was on my WhatsApp. It’s as simple as that.”
Dundee United’s mocking response to Nancy Post
If Wednesday night had ended in victory, perhaps this would have been a flash story. But United’s stunning second-half comeback did nothing to help matters. And so was their full-time celebration.
Dundee United mocked Nancy on social media with a full-time post following their win over Celtic.
After the final whistle sounded, the club’s official
To make matters worse, the post also mocked Venn diagrams by creating a parody diagram with a score line.
