In a way, it was rather nice to see Wilfried Nancy look ever so slightly more like the bloke who once had the MLS in the palm of his hand during his pre-Old Firm address on Friday.
Passionate, determined, assertive. Yes, it was surely just one last rally before death — or, more accurately, the sack — but it was better than the low-key, taciturn character with no answers for anything back in evidence after his Celtic side’s 3-1 Old Firm loss yesterday.
It’s just that there’s one big problem with Nancy’s case for the defence. One problem that leaves him, particularly after derby defeat, without a leg to stand on.
On Friday, he kept urging journalists to do their job, review games his team had lost and look how those games played out. He keeps banging on about his team not getting what they deserve.
Does he really think Celtic merited any more from the Premier Sports Cup final than comprehensive defeat from St Mirren?
One thing’s for sure. They were absolutely taken apart by Motherwell during the week.
Wilfried Nancy can’t look as he falls to a sixth defeat in his eighth match in charge of Celtic
The misery is etched on the Frenchman’s face as another winning position is thrown away
Mikey Moore celebrates after hitting Rangers’ third goal to complete the Old Firm turnaround
Even yesterday, the Frenchman was still going on about how he is seeing good things and how ‘we deserve better’.
Celtic got their just deserts against Rangers. Sure, they were the better team in the opening 45, but nothing excuses how bad they were after the break.
This is a club and a team in total freefall. They are deserving of everything coming their way from endless defeats to punters demanding blood in the stadium car park.
Nancy clearly just doesn’t get it. He is the wrong man in the wrong movie.
Outwith Rangers, Celtic have a budget multiple times bigger than anyone else in Scottish football.
You would expect them to have the lion’s share of the ball in almost every game they play. It’s only natural they generally create more chances than the opposition.
All that matters is that they are not winning — and they simply cannot defend. In losing six of Nancy’s eight games in charge, they have conceded 18 goals.
Celtic have a home game against Dundee United next week… but will Nancy still be in charge?
Believing you are doing something right by making chances in games you cannot win against St Mirren, Dundee United and Hearts shows just how far off the mark this bloke is.
Your players are up against opponents on a fraction of their wages. Whether coming to terms with a new system and different ideas or not, Celtic should be winning more or less every game they play.
Instead, with Motherwell and Hibernian now within touching distance of them in the table, they’ll be lucky to even finish in the European qualifying places unless something changes — i.e. a head coach who doesn’t seem to understand the primary purpose of his job. Winning. At all costs.
