Celtic boss Wilfried Nancy has acknowledged the intense scrutiny surrounding his position following a disastrous start to his tenure in Scotland…
The Frenchman will lead his team into tonight’s Scottish Premiership clash with Dundee United at Tannadice after suffering three defeats in his opening two weeks in charge.
Those results against Hearts, Roma and particularly Sunday’s loss to St Mirren in the Premier Sports League Cup final have already sparked frustration among sections of the support, with some questioning whether the club made the right appointment.
Nancy not seeking validation from critics
Despite the mounting pressure, Nancy has struck a firm tone, insisting he is not seeking validation from critics and remains confident in his methods.
While accepting that expectations at Celtic are unforgiving, the 48 year-old maintains that short-term turbulence will not deter him from his long-term vision for the side.
“I know at this moment, yeah my ass is burning,” Wilfried Nancy
Speaking via The Herald, Nancy 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.”
However, Nancy insists the backlash has come as no surprise. “No, because this is my job,” he said. “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. I don’t have to prove anything for anybody.”
Nancy continued: “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.”
When questioned on whether he shared former Hoops manager Brendan Rodgers’ view that the current group requires significant strengthening, Nancy responded: “Everybody has his own opinion. But for me, the way I am as a coach, every window is important because the idea is to bring competition.”
“We don’t have to bring in players just for the sake of bringing in players. For me, the window is a tool to add more players to bring competition because I believe, with good competition between players the level is going to be up.”
“The idea is to see what type of players that we need and after that, if we think they will bring the competition up, then we will do it.”
“If you ask me the same question in four months’ time it’s going to be the same answer. The windows are really important but January can be tricky also and I know what I’m talking about as I’ve just come in in the middle of the season and it’s not easy. We have to find the balance.”
“In the summer time it’s not the same because we have time to prepare the team. So each window is important and we’ll see what we have to do with that.”
Conor Spence
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