For those of us who felt Wilfried Nancy represented an interesting appointment as a bringer of new ideas to a stale, divided club spinning off its axis, it has been a chastening few days.
The Frenchman, sad to say, is doing little at Celtic other than making a clown of himself. Last Wednesday at Tannadice was as bad as it gets.
In what world does a Celtic manager find himself being interviewed on national radio before a big match about being unable to change the picture on his WhatsApp profile after being nagged by his missus and ending up posting some two-bob self-motivational Venn Diagram on X? Days after he’s said he’s staying away from social media to block out the noise.
Then, after extending the worst ever start by a Celtic boss by losing a fourth game on the spin to Dundee United, he’s out telling the world in the post-game media conference that he actually knows all there is to know about Scottish football — because he once came close to signing for Carlisle United as a player.
For all the valid comparisons between the pair, this stuff would give even Russell Martin a riddy. Salutations, though, and a Christmas bottle of Calvados to the bright spark who stated elsewhere on social media that Nancy’s Tayside troubles left only one real question to be answered: ‘Venn are you leaving our club?’.
As reputation-shredding blunders go, there haven’t been two in such quick succession since, ohhhhh, that silly Saturday in September which started with a club source accusing former boss Brendan Rodgers of ‘tearing the place apart’ in a national newspaper and ended with a 9pm statement blaming everything from journalists to podcasters to FIFA financial regulations for the board making an absolute ricket of the transfer window and going out of the Champions League qualifiers to Kairat Almaty.
Celtic supporters have got their wish with the departure of chairman Peter Lawwell
Chief executive Michael Nicholson (left) can now expect to face the brunt of the abuse alone
Lawwell chose the announcement of his farewell to take another pop at Celtic fans
Given everything that has gone on in the interim, it feels like that 1,000-word plus dollop of gibberish — posted on the official website yet attributed to no one — happened eons ago. Compared to some of the stuff that has since thundered out of Celtic’s PR blunderbuss — a weapon that appears to be in hands of a cider farmer too fond of his own produce — it actually looks quite measured and temperate. A mere appetiser for the madness and tone-deaf cluelessness to come.
Honestly, it’s hard to know where to begin with that. Maybe with major shareholder Dermot Desmond hijacking official channels at ten at night to deliver an astonishing evisceration of the departing Rodgers, branding his behaviour ‘divisive, misleading and self-serving.’
Or with Dermot’s boy Ross turning up at that fiasco of an AGM — and getting it shut down — with a barnstormer of a speech that started by reinforcing daddy’s credentials as a good Sellick man and ended by slaughtering punters, branding those who can’t appreciate the board’s good work as financial illiterates and effectively admitting all aspirations of doing well in Europe have been overshadowed by the fact other teams in other countries have got more dough now.
Whether it is down to appointments, transfers or even sending out a press statement, Celtic don’t seem to be able to get anything right any longer. Every disaster is followed by another. Every mis-step simply precedes someone else putting their foot in it days later. It’s a shambles.
Look at the statement on the day of the United game detailing Peter Lawwell’s decision to stand down as chairman.
Lawwell has been a huge figure in Celtic’s history. Of course, he should never have taken up the role as chairman after bailing out as chief executive in the wake of the catastrophic Covid season that saw Ten-In-A-Row go up in smoke. His son Mark being appointed head of recruitment was a nonsense always likely to blow up in the club’s face too.
Wilfried Nancy is beginning to look increasingly isolated and out of his depth at the club
That does not change the fact that, in his pomp, Lawwell was a master politician and a perfect candidate for the role of CEO. He didn’t just understand Celtic. He understood the wider landscape. To the letter.
However, using the announcement of his farewell to focus on having another go at supporters for threats and abuse he has been receiving felt unnecessarily — and unhelpfully — confrontational.
This whole situation is not just about the ultra types over in the corner. A whole range of groups have signed up to be part of the The Celtic Fans’ Collective, demanding change and dialogue. This communications policy from the powerbase simply flamethrowers them all.
Martin O’Neill, a voice of reason, tried to plead for unity during his short stint as interim manager. That’s a two-way street, though. If fans are being asked to take a more collaborative approach to healing wounds at their club, that extends to the board too.
Right now, they give the impression of being entrenched in war against their own consumer base with zero intention of backing down, which is madness.
As for those at the top of the organisation, they hide behind the barricades. Current CEO Michael ‘World-Class’ Nicholson has started to speak publicly after four years in the role, almost always within the cosseted environment of the in-house TV station.
The smiles seen at Nancy’s unveiling have long since given way to more concerned features
His appearances only confirm he is ill-suited to his role. He’s certainly no Peter Lawwell. He did state in a Celtic TV appearance, naturally, during the week that the club remain behind Nancy as manager, but it’s not enough.
Look, Nancy is killing himself. He gives the impression of someone who just didn’t do their homework on Celtic or the surrounding environment. That stuff about WhatsApp and Carlisle might seem small fry, but it isn’t. It points to a real lack of understanding of what he has landed in and how he needs to comport himself.
It beggars belief his handover with O’Neill lasted 15 minutes and didn’t involve the Frenchman picking the 73-year-old’s brains. His insistence on playing 3-4-2-1 — or whatever it is — with players incapable of delivering speaks to an ego out-of-kilter.
Tellingly, though, he is no longer the sage-like, engaging guy who made such a positive impression in his interviews at Columbus Crew. He’s stumbling over his words, exuding stress, giving the impression he knows he is lost and out of his depth.
He’s a dead man walking, being brutal. Fail to beat Aberdeen today and that will be it. You can only survive punters telling you to get to France, as they did at Tannadice, for so long.
Yet, for all his mistakes and failings, where has the help and support been when Nancy has needed it?
The role played by Celtic’s ‘head of football operations’ needs to be looked at very closely
He was shoved out at Lennoxtown to meet the media on his own after arriving. No fanfare. No one from up the pecking order explaining why they went leftfield, what they saw in Nancy, where he fits in to the wider plan. Just nothing.
Nicholson’s stuff on Celtic TV carries no weight, contains no detail. He is not a leader. As for head of football operations Paul Tisdale, a failed Stevenage manager still best known for wearing funny hats, the silence goes on.
Where is this guy? Nancy is sinking without trace. He needs someone, anyone, to give him a steer on what you should be doing and saying as a Celtic manager. He needs someone to fight his corner while he resets and gets his head around this job he has taken on.
Yet, there’s no sign of any meaningful interventions. He’s hung out to dry, out there on his own, being barracked over green trainers, tactics boards, social media and his shortcomings on British geography.
Lawwell’s gone. Nancy’s next. And when that moment comes, when the club finds itself back to phoning O’Neill to steady the ship again, Nicholson and Tisdale, among others, ought to be having their possessions placed in black binbags on The Celtic Way too.
Even Desmond snr must eventually see that Celtic can’t stay in this state of perpetual conflict and chaos. They need personalities capable of starting over and making a breakthrough with their support base.
Nicholson and Tisdale don’t, won’t and can’t. Not now. Not after all this.
