Wilfried Nancy has been Celtic manager for barely a week, yet he already finds himself at the centre of a storm.
Two games, two defeats, and a club jolted from the optimism that accompanied Martin O’Neill’s farewell just days earlier — this is the brutal reality Nancy has walked into as he prepares for Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup final against St Mirren.
For Stephen Robinson, the St Mirren manager, the past week has undoubtedly offered encouragement. When O’Neill departed on a wave of gratitude, Celtic looked settled, stable, and assured. Now they appear shaken.
Where O’Neill brought pragmatism and calm, Nancy has brought sweeping changes and early results suggest the players are struggling to adapt.
Celtic’s loss to Hearts in Nancy’s first game was followed by a 3–0 humbling at home to Roma, a night when boos echoed around a rapidly emptying Celtic Park. Losing to Roma is not unusual for Celtic managers, past or present, but the manner of the defeat, the confusion in structure, the vulnerability in defence, and the sense of disarray raised alarms.
Thursday’s match marked only the second time in Celtic’s European history they conceded three first-half goals at home. Liam Scales’ early own goal was the quickest Celtic have conceded in a European game for more than a decade.
These are not the records a new manager wants to break.
Nancy, determined to imprint his philosophy immediately, has reshaped the team dramatically. He has shifted to a back three composed of three left-footers, a tactical choice Derek McInnes ruthlessly exposed.
He has attempted to convert wingers Yang Hyun-Jun and Sebastian Tounekti into wing-backs, experiments that have backfired. Players appear uncomfortable, uncertain, and at times overwhelmed.
Celtic fans, though wary of early overreaction, cannot ignore the signs. Under O’Neill, results were rarely glamorous but were consistently effective: all but one match won, including a rare European away success. Under Nancy, the structure and discipline that underpinned those results appear to have dissolved rapidly.
Yet, as critics sharpen their knives, Nancy has been quick to highlight tiny positives — chiefly, that the team avoided further damage in the second half against Roma. These are small consolations, barely enough to soothe rising anxiety among supporters who now view Sunday’s final with apprehension rather than anticipation.
The pressure is heightened by the environment Nancy has entered. Glasgow football is famously unforgiving. Judgement comes quickly and often harshly. Russell Martin experienced it at Rangers before he had even taken charge of a competitive match. Nancy has at least had games — but they have done him few favours. He has had limited time on the training ground, yet he chose bold tactical shifts where caution might have bought him breathing room. With assistant coach John Kennedy gone, a source of institutional wisdom also departed, leaving Nancy without a figure who might have urged a gentler transition.
Nevertheless, Celtic’s issues are not terminal. Nancy does not require a full rebuild akin to Ange Postecoglou’s overhaul when he arrived. He needs reinforcements, yes, but not wholesale change. He deserves time and a January window to shape his team. But in Glasgow, time is earned through results in the here and now.
That is why Sunday’s final is colossal for him. Victory would not erase tactical concerns, but it would give him credibility, a moment of connection with supporters, and room to breathe. It would briefly quiet the doubts and give his project a platform.
Defeat, however, is a scenario he will not wish to contemplate. Robinson will sense an opportunity. St Mirren will come to Hampden determined to unsettle Celtic, to test their fragility, and to exploit the confusion visible in recent performances.
For Nancy, it may already feel like make-or-break territory. A trophy on Sunday could steady the ship. Anything less risks deepening the uncertainty that has engulfed the early days of his Celtic tenure.
