Wilfried Nancy. Motherwell v Celtic, Scottish Premiership. 30 December 2025 Photo by Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
LIONEL RICHIE – 1/10 – Oh, dear. There are moments around failed Celtic managers’ legacies that kind of sink you into the depressing realisation that they’re a busted flush; Kris Commons going off on one at Ronny Deila in Malmo like they’d been married 20 years and he’d forgotten the anniversary. Tony Mowbray throwing Achilles and Jason and the Argonauts at St.Mirren and still going down 4-0…And then last night. I’d been an advocate of time and reason over WF’s inauspicious start. Then came half-time. And the instant-hangover comprehension that he was, after six and a half games, still staggering about slinging drunken punches into the shadows, like Derek Johnstone in the Mordor hospitality.
Motherwell’s little post match dig. Motherwell v Celtic, Scottish Premiership. 30 December 2025 Photo by Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
Very little understanding of what and who he was working with and the realistic options for success. Three hooks, one – Paulo – that didn’t seem beyond reason, but another two so harsh, illogical and random, I wondered if we were about to be graced with some epiphanic vision of tactical genius that would shame Nostradamus for insight. Nope, that didn’t happen.
Wilfried Nancy. Motherwell v Celtic, Scottish Premiership. 30 December 2025 Photo by Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
What did happen was, to be fair to the continuity aspect, no different that preceding antics, just that Motherwell sat deeper once they considered us bitch-slapped enough. And after the game, by way of explanation, we got five minutes of abstract conceptualisation in classic French existentialist murmuring that has no real effect other than to deepen the furrows on your troubled brow.
Wilfried Nancy. Motherwell v Celtic, Scottish Premiership. 30 December 2025 Photo by Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
Wilifred is very much esotericism and hypothesis. It charmed the Americans. Apparently it worked for a while. But we didn’t need a Ronny Deila with a degree in psychology from St.Tropez (RIP Brigitte, baby; what a woman…), or a Jean Paul Sartre. We needed a Zinedine Zidane to command respect from a disaffected playing squad and crack them into winning form. And he’s about as far from that as the Zombies are from civilisation. And they might just end his brief Celtic romance in classic tragic style come the New Year. The clock’s ticking, and not just on 2025.
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Excellent, if depressing synopsis David. Invest some time in mentoring your colleagues in the art of fine writing in 2026….
Difficult to disagree with any of that and it’s about time you got brutal with certain players.
This is the poorest Celtic team I’ve watched, since the eighties, just dire. Far too many just not good enough, or just stale. Absolutely awful at the back, a goalie who gives me palpitations with every attempted piece of ‘distribution’, a midfield with zero creativity, including the captain, a succession of wingers who, simply, just can’t cross a ball and a raft of strikers who couldn’t score in the old ‘Palais de Dance!’
If we don’t have better than that, in the academy…..then what’s the point of an academy.
Nancy , Tisdale and most of the Board who formed a concensus to bring these two Saboteur (Duds) to Celtic Park should be instantly dismissed . Add to that , get rid of the over-rated players commanding good salaries with Celtic , starting with :- Engels , Hetate , Tierney , McCowan , Yang , Ralston , McGregor ( who , like Brendan before him ) is off to SAUDI to continue their jersey kissing in warmer climes .
It could take years to sort-out this mess —-Time for an instant S.O.S. to ANGE and Martin O’ Neil —-Who would hopefully come to oversee a REBUILD and put our Great Club back to where it should be in both Scotland and Europe . In the past we have had some crap players who lacked ability but made-up for this with effort and pride in the jersey they wore sadly those days are gone with crowd of impostors who now wear the Celtic shirt .
Jock Stein said that , ” The Celtic jersey did not shrink to fit inferior players ” , unfortunately , it has shrunk for many over the last few seasons .