If Celtic are to salvage anything from this season then Dermot Desmond and his CEO Michael Nicholson will have to come out and admit they have got the management appointment of Wilfried Nancy wrong and relieve him of his duties. But we know they won’t do that.
Last night’s performance was a disgrace. Inverness Caley under John Barnes and St. Mirren away under Tony Mowbray come to mind when I use the word disgrace.
They must also admit that Brendan Rodgers was correct to call them out on their recruitment policy and the quality of the players being brought into the club are just not good enough. We signed two Japanese players who have barely kicked a ball for 3 managers. That in itself tells you how bad the recruitment has been.
When the former Exeter manager Paul Tisdale was appointed as Head of Football Operations on the 16 Oct 2024 we were told
“In this new strategic role reporting to the Board, Paul will oversee the development and management of effective operations to support high-level football performance, including the identification and development of talent, in line with the club’s objective to develop Champions League players through our Academy and recruitment processes”
Which was the start of the downsizing of the club, by January 2025 we had sold Kyogo and never replaced him. During the Summer Idah and Kuhn were sold leaving the team short of attacking options and goals.
Celtic Chief Executive, Michael Nicholson said when Tisdale arrived:
“We are delighted to appoint Paul as Head of Football Operations, and we are sure he will bring a new dimension to our work.
‘Talent identification and talent development, from our Academy through to our first team, is of fundamental importance to the club’s strategy, and Paul has tremendous expertise in these areas.’
“We are certain that he will bring great experience, energy and innovation to what we do, working alongside Brendan, our football manager, Chris McCart Head of Academy and our excellent wider football staff, to bring further development and success to the club.”
So how is it working out. Brendan Rodgers walked, the team is a shambles and Martin O’Neill is on stand by and can’t commit to personal appearance bookings till mid January. Make of that what you will. I wouldn’t trust the current board to run a bath never mind a football club.
Martin O’Neill was able to get the best out of the current team. They loved his man management style. He was manager of the month for November. Under his watch we beat the rangers, were unbeaten in the league and we even got a rare European away win.
The players now look a shadow of themselves under Nancy. The fact that he only spent 15 minutes with Martin O’Neill at a handover meeting after O’Neill stayed an extra night in Glasgow to welcome him tells its own story about the Frenchman.
He thinks he knows best but we now know that he ripped up a winning script for his style of football that has seen Celtic concede 15 goals, lose a Cup Final, lose to Roma at Celtic Park in Europe and get a football lesson from Motherwell. His record going into the rangers game is played 7 won 2 lost 5. They and I use they as a collective Dermot Desmond , the Celtic board, Paul Tisdale and Wilfried Nancy have managed to do this in less than a month. You can see just how much damage they have done in less than a month to OUR club and I won’t even mention the damage Ross Desmond’s attack on the Celtic support at the AGM has done to an already strained relationship between the Celtic support and those paid handsomely to run Celtic.
When the new manager arrived Celtic Chief Executive Michael Nicholson told us
“We have been aware of Wilfried and his quality of work for some time – he was our number one candidate when we began the process of appointing a new Manager and we are delighted that he has agreed to join the club.
“I know he is hugely excited about this opportunity to be part of Celtic’s future. We will give Wilfried every support to face the challenges ahead, with our aim as always being to deliver the success for the club which our supporters deserve, this season and beyond.
While outgoing Celtic chairman Peter Lawell told us
“We are really pleased to welcome Wilfried to Celtic. He is a Manager with a record which demonstrates the kind of football which we know Celtic supporters love to see. We will give Wilfried all our support as we look to once again bring success to our fans.
The Celtic support deserve better than those who are running our club into the ground. A win over the rangers on Saturday will only paper over the cracks but after last night if you’re a rangers fan you will be feeling a lot more confident than we are.
Andrew Milne is Editor of More than 90 Minutes and Host of the Celtic Soul Podcast
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