Wilfried Nancy: Celtic boss retains board support despite losing first four games in charge | Football news

Celtic boss Wilfried Nancy has the full support of the board despite losing his opening four matches.

Pressure is mounting on the new manager after losing to Hearts, Roma, St Mirren and Dundee United in his first 15 days in office – their worst run since 1978.

Nancy had a routine chat with the club’s hierarchy to discuss upcoming plans, recruitment, as well as wider topics relating to adjusting to life in Scotland and staying safe.

Nancy trained as normal at Lennoxtown, as the Hoops prepare to face Aberdeen at Celtic Park on Sunday.

Sky Sports News understands that club bosses agree with Nancy’s vision for Celtic and have fully supported her desire to change the system immediately.

They are believed to feel they have a better idea of ​​which current squad members can fit into the new system, in order to focus on areas that will require recruitment during the January and summer transfer windows.

This was reiterated yesterday when CEO Michael Nicholson told Celtic TV he had held talks with Nancy regarding recruitment for the next two transfer windows.

During last night’s 2-1 defeat to Dundee United at Tannadice, many of the Celtic fans chanted for Nancy to leave. There were also chants of ‘Martin O’Neill’ – who took over as interim manager following the shock departure of Brendan Rodgers – winning seven of his eight games.

Nancy, 48, was named to the Columbus Crew – on the recommendation of Celtic’s head of football operations Paul Tisdale.

Tisdale is currently on vacation but is said to be in close contact with club staff and working towards the January transfer window.

Sutton: “Nancy’s method doesn’t work”

Speaking after Wednesday’s defeat, former Celtic striker Chris Sutton admitted he had sympathy for the position Nancy found himself in, but admitted his method had not worked since taking the reins from Martin O’Neill.

“I have enormous sympathy for him,” Sutton said. “The Celtics are not in preseason and if Nancy had a whole preseason, you might be able to see things play out differently.

“He doesn’t have that. He says he doesn’t have time, so it’s going to be incredibly difficult to move this team forward.

“Since Martin O’Neill left, the confidence of some players has dropped. The main thing with Celtic and it’s been like that all season, is that it’s not working.

“He needs his team to perform well and he needs to have confidence in the fan base. Sunday is going to be really interesting, the atmosphere inside Celtic Park and how it’s going.

“Celtic need to win the league this season to get into the Champions League and that’s the key.

“The difference between Glasgow football and anywhere else is that once the fans attack the manager that’s it and I don’t know if we’re too far from that. That’s Nancy’s problem and that’s why Sunday (at home to Aberdeen) will be fascinating.

“I think he should have come in and handled the situation. I don’t think he necessarily did that. He came in and said, ‘I’ll be the coach and I’ll do things my way.’

“Well, Wilf’s method, right now, isn’t working and that’s a problem.

“I think Nancy has qualities as a coach and you can see some of the rotations and his ideas… he came in and he changed things.

“He said he talked to Martin O’Neill and talked to him for 15 minutes. He said before the game, ‘Martin’s got what he wants, and I’ve got mine’. Losing four games on a rotation, his path doesn’t work.”

“What you should focus on”: The Venn diagram that caused a storm

Before the match at Tannadice Park, Nancy appeared to update her profile picture to X of a Venn diagram with the captions “Things you can control”, “Things that matter”. There was then an arrow pointing to the middle of the diagram that was labeled “What You Should Focus On.”

Without context, the image appears to be a subtle response to the noise surrounding his future at Celtic Park just two weeks into his tenure, where some sections of the fanbase have already called for his departure.

When fans noticed the profile change, it quickly went viral and the account eventually went private.

Nancy later claimed that the photo in question was unrelated to Celtic and was linked to her time at Columbus Crew.

“My wife was not happy and to be honest, believe it or not, the profile was about Columbus,” he said. BBC Sport.

“So my X photo was about Columbus, me being in the Columbus locker room. So I just wanted to change what I have on my WhatsApp.

“It’s that simple. So it wasn’t a mistake or anything like that. I don’t want to create a battle that simple like that.

“I did it because my photo was visible upstairs in the Columbus locker room, so I just wanted to change what I have on my WhatsApp. It’s that simple.”

Dundee United mocking response to Nancy’s post

If Wednesday night had ended in a victory, it might have been a flash in the pan. However, United’s remarkable second-half comeback did nothing to help matters. And neither do their full-time celebrations.

After the final whistle, the club’s official X account posted an image captioned “focusing on three huge points”, referring to the statements contained in Nancy’s upload.

To make matters worse, the post also mocked the Venn diagram by creating a parody that included the score.

What’s next for Celtic?