Hampden humiliation, tactical chaos and a furious support – the Nancy project has torched Celtic’s season in a matter of days. This is not a transition, it’s an implosion.
Ok, your tag line is a little misleading, and shows only one facet of your detailed and mostly spot on article. The only thing I cannot agree with, is that this is down to a new manager. Did you see O’Neils last game in charge, or the Mittyland game?. What he did was instil a little confidence in inferior players and tell them to play like they were superior to their opponents, which their relative values point at. He had easy games compared to the last 3, and I think he would have lost all 3 like Nancy, and probably Rogers.
This is down to the players, they are professionals and should be able to play in most systems, even if they need practice at it to become really proficient in a given system. Our bunch are as I describe in my previous comment, and they are incapable of playing a formation to any standard as they have proven, showing a distinct lack of professionalism.
There are many squads who do not only play two systems when needed, but multiple ones, whereas, under 3 managers we have totally failed to grasp multiple systems in any way shape or form. They are weak willed bottlers who contrary to tinted glass wearing commenters, have failed miserably under 3 managers, even if they got lucky under one against the easier opponents largely.
Having said all that, I agree with every other word you say, in your thorough and accurate article. Nancy was brought in as a cheap, compliant yes man, desperate to get a foot into European management, and as such, prepared to accept anything from the board. Is he capable of leading this team where others have failed, probably not. But his biggest failure to date is failing completely to get the players to buy into his ideas in any way, not failing after having been set up to fail by an incompetent board, and where two more apparently superior guys failed before him,with an inferior squad of players.( even if O’Neil did get lucky in easier games)
Before I read the article, I must disagree with the tag line. We have been this crap under 3 managers now, Rogers who had his squad dismantled from under him, Martin who gave the players a little confidence and got lucky( his ‘system’ was to point out to the players they were supposed to be superior to their opponents), and Nancy who has been brought in mid season to oversee a shower of weak willed bottlers who are increasingly failing to fulfill their job description.
I agree with near all of the article, I am 99% sure he was and is the wrong guy. But even though that is my opinion on Nancy, I believe he has to get a bit longer, it is an unfolding disaster and we just have to let it play out a bit longer. My reason for that is sacking him after three games is unfair, even though I am near certain he will fail, he deserves more time.
Exchanged words with someone earlier who tried to compare the starts of Ange and Nancy in regards results, fair enough I said, maybe there are similarities results wise. But there are zero similarities in the way they carry themselves, what they say in pressers and to the media in general. Ange never talked much nonsense, carried himself well, and exuded a certain confidence. Nancy has given me the opposite impression.
Another reason for just letting the disaster unfold until the man who hired him ( Desmond ) has no option but to sack him is, if he was sacked after three games the board could claim, through their poodles in fan media and the MSM, that the fans chased him out, whereas if we get to the stage of no return after a few weeks, nobody could question the sacking. Short term pain, for the long term gain, hopefully..... good article 👍
Before you open your stupid reactionary arse to spout out textual diarrhoea, maybe you should take a breath, and focus more on the context of which you skim over. You rightly acknowledge why this team is in this position - an incompetent, unambitious boardroom, run by an absentee landlord (though why we call him a landlord when he does NOT own Celtic I don’ t know). Despite this acknowledgment, you trash a guy who has been brought in mid season to inherit a team that unconvincingly scraped its way, and massively rode its luck through far easier games under O’Neil. Hearts are top of the table, Roma are second in Italy, and Celtic were extremely fortunate to get anything out of the last two games with St Mirren. The assumption you imply that Saint O’Neil would have won any of those three proper games is naive. Let’s be fucking honest, no manager would have enabled the current team at our disposal to have took anything from the Roma game! Lets now look to your other a wild reckless arrogant assumptions - that the new manager is out of his depth - on what evidence? If it's the last three games, then that is not sufficient evidence, as I have just outlined, it is unlikely O/Neil would have won those games either. But unlike you , you utter prick, I don’t take my evidence from reactionary emotions, I take it from listening to smarter people who have spent years analysing football data - I suggest you listen to The Huddle Breakdown - where they will be able to give an objective data analysis of everything Celtic related. From what they have gathered, Nancy is more than a competent manager. And if you think they may not be objective enough )being Celitc fans), then consider that a similar set of analysts from the other end of the City, had identified Nancy as a top manager that they wanted to bring to Rangers. He is also consistently seen as the best manager to come out of the MLS, a league which, sorry to break it to you, is now far stronger than Scotlands two horsed shite. The reality is, you cannot sell all our front players, thus leaving the remaining team needing to work twice as hard, resulting in more injuries, and then blame and sack the fucking manager. All the clowns like you blamed Rodgers were quick to forget all that context, and quicker still to forget he is the most successful manager in Celtics recent history. Now Nancy has been brought in in the midst of this existing crisis, which is far worse since Rodgers left , with more injuries , more fan board disconnect and general negativity. And you throw him into a top of the table clash for his first game, when the guy probably hasn’t even settled into his new home, never mind got to know the team. I mean do you seriously think the Bodo Gimp or whatever the fuck they are called manager guy was going to come in and win those three games, or any of them? Again, on what fucking evidence? Context, Context Context…where’s your fucking context, do you even understand the word? Just because Martin O’Neil got a run of results does not mean anything. The guys at the Huddle Breakdown have basically said he got lucky, he rode his luck. And it was NOT O’Neil coaching the team, it was Maloney. All O’Neil did was create a good feel factor based on the nostalgia of his previous time here. But without more players back from injury, without more quality signings, O’Neil would have been unable to ride that luck. And would you then give O”Neil the money to buy those players for the rest of the season? Ok, let’s suppose we did, and it all worked out well, then what? Do you seriously think O’Neil could have or would have even wanted to stay manager for the next two or three years. At his precarious age, and seeing how fucking nervous he was, there was no way that was going to happen. So what happens when O’Neil stayed until the end of this year or end of this season and went his merry way? The next manager is stuck with a load of new players that he didn’t pick and that may not fit his style. That’s the best case scenario. The worst case scenario, and far more likely one is that O”Neils luck would have run out before Christmas, and he would have faced the reactionary type of criticism that clowns like you through out without taking a second to think about context. O’Neil was a great manager of his time and a legend in my eyes, so it would not have been right to put him through that risk. Bringing in O’Neil shows not only the level of imagination the board have, but the willingness they have to destroy the reputations of those who have truly served this club. They did it to Rodger, they did it to Neil Lennon, they did it to Rodgers again, and now they are doing it to a guy who is a legend in the MLS, a guy who is extremely highly rated by objective, analytical experts , who’s actual job it is to judge these things. Who the fuck are you to right this guy off after three supremely difficult games , half way through a season, with no front line and all our best defenders injured. What credentials do you have to shout this guy needs to go. You are a fucking prize clown, and you and all those other “supporters” who left the game with 20 minutes to go are not worthy of supporting this club.
As ever Andy, you are spot on. Couldn't have said it better.
You are up there with the legendary pantheon of astute and shrewd footballing journalists, who call it as they see it. Celtic FC is the Sick Man of British Football just now, a laughing stock under this amateur, naive and arrogant manager Nancy from the footballing MLS backwaters. If the Celtic Board don't sack Nancy over night, they are cutting their own throats. They will lose the League, Scottish Cup and get bounced out of European by this French/American chancer of a project manager.
Ok, your tag line is a little misleading, and shows only one facet of your detailed and mostly spot on article. The only thing I cannot agree with, is that this is down to a new manager. Did you see O’Neils last game in charge, or the Mittyland game?. What he did was instil a little confidence in inferior players and tell them to play like they were superior to their opponents, which their relative values point at. He had easy games compared to the last 3, and I think he would have lost all 3 like Nancy, and probably Rogers.
This is down to the players, they are professionals and should be able to play in most systems, even if they need practice at it to become really proficient in a given system. Our bunch are as I describe in my previous comment, and they are incapable of playing a formation to any standard as they have proven, showing a distinct lack of professionalism.
There are many squads who do not only play two systems when needed, but multiple ones, whereas, under 3 managers we have totally failed to grasp multiple systems in any way shape or form. They are weak willed bottlers who contrary to tinted glass wearing commenters, have failed miserably under 3 managers, even if they got lucky under one against the easier opponents largely.
Having said all that, I agree with every other word you say, in your thorough and accurate article. Nancy was brought in as a cheap, compliant yes man, desperate to get a foot into European management, and as such, prepared to accept anything from the board. Is he capable of leading this team where others have failed, probably not. But his biggest failure to date is failing completely to get the players to buy into his ideas in any way, not failing after having been set up to fail by an incompetent board, and where two more apparently superior guys failed before him,with an inferior squad of players.( even if O’Neil did get lucky in easier games)
Before I read the article, I must disagree with the tag line. We have been this crap under 3 managers now, Rogers who had his squad dismantled from under him, Martin who gave the players a little confidence and got lucky( his ‘system’ was to point out to the players they were supposed to be superior to their opponents), and Nancy who has been brought in mid season to oversee a shower of weak willed bottlers who are increasingly failing to fulfill their job description.
I agree with near all of the article, I am 99% sure he was and is the wrong guy. But even though that is my opinion on Nancy, I believe he has to get a bit longer, it is an unfolding disaster and we just have to let it play out a bit longer. My reason for that is sacking him after three games is unfair, even though I am near certain he will fail, he deserves more time.
Exchanged words with someone earlier who tried to compare the starts of Ange and Nancy in regards results, fair enough I said, maybe there are similarities results wise. But there are zero similarities in the way they carry themselves, what they say in pressers and to the media in general. Ange never talked much nonsense, carried himself well, and exuded a certain confidence. Nancy has given me the opposite impression.
Another reason for just letting the disaster unfold until the man who hired him ( Desmond ) has no option but to sack him is, if he was sacked after three games the board could claim, through their poodles in fan media and the MSM, that the fans chased him out, whereas if we get to the stage of no return after a few weeks, nobody could question the sacking. Short term pain, for the long term gain, hopefully..... good article 👍
You seem very upset. Do you need a cuddle?
Before you open your stupid reactionary arse to spout out textual diarrhoea, maybe you should take a breath, and focus more on the context of which you skim over. You rightly acknowledge why this team is in this position - an incompetent, unambitious boardroom, run by an absentee landlord (though why we call him a landlord when he does NOT own Celtic I don’ t know). Despite this acknowledgment, you trash a guy who has been brought in mid season to inherit a team that unconvincingly scraped its way, and massively rode its luck through far easier games under O’Neil. Hearts are top of the table, Roma are second in Italy, and Celtic were extremely fortunate to get anything out of the last two games with St Mirren. The assumption you imply that Saint O’Neil would have won any of those three proper games is naive. Let’s be fucking honest, no manager would have enabled the current team at our disposal to have took anything from the Roma game! Lets now look to your other a wild reckless arrogant assumptions - that the new manager is out of his depth - on what evidence? If it's the last three games, then that is not sufficient evidence, as I have just outlined, it is unlikely O/Neil would have won those games either. But unlike you , you utter prick, I don’t take my evidence from reactionary emotions, I take it from listening to smarter people who have spent years analysing football data - I suggest you listen to The Huddle Breakdown - where they will be able to give an objective data analysis of everything Celtic related. From what they have gathered, Nancy is more than a competent manager. And if you think they may not be objective enough )being Celitc fans), then consider that a similar set of analysts from the other end of the City, had identified Nancy as a top manager that they wanted to bring to Rangers. He is also consistently seen as the best manager to come out of the MLS, a league which, sorry to break it to you, is now far stronger than Scotlands two horsed shite. The reality is, you cannot sell all our front players, thus leaving the remaining team needing to work twice as hard, resulting in more injuries, and then blame and sack the fucking manager. All the clowns like you blamed Rodgers were quick to forget all that context, and quicker still to forget he is the most successful manager in Celtics recent history. Now Nancy has been brought in in the midst of this existing crisis, which is far worse since Rodgers left , with more injuries , more fan board disconnect and general negativity. And you throw him into a top of the table clash for his first game, when the guy probably hasn’t even settled into his new home, never mind got to know the team. I mean do you seriously think the Bodo Gimp or whatever the fuck they are called manager guy was going to come in and win those three games, or any of them? Again, on what fucking evidence? Context, Context Context…where’s your fucking context, do you even understand the word? Just because Martin O’Neil got a run of results does not mean anything. The guys at the Huddle Breakdown have basically said he got lucky, he rode his luck. And it was NOT O’Neil coaching the team, it was Maloney. All O’Neil did was create a good feel factor based on the nostalgia of his previous time here. But without more players back from injury, without more quality signings, O’Neil would have been unable to ride that luck. And would you then give O”Neil the money to buy those players for the rest of the season? Ok, let’s suppose we did, and it all worked out well, then what? Do you seriously think O’Neil could have or would have even wanted to stay manager for the next two or three years. At his precarious age, and seeing how fucking nervous he was, there was no way that was going to happen. So what happens when O’Neil stayed until the end of this year or end of this season and went his merry way? The next manager is stuck with a load of new players that he didn’t pick and that may not fit his style. That’s the best case scenario. The worst case scenario, and far more likely one is that O”Neils luck would have run out before Christmas, and he would have faced the reactionary type of criticism that clowns like you through out without taking a second to think about context. O’Neil was a great manager of his time and a legend in my eyes, so it would not have been right to put him through that risk. Bringing in O’Neil shows not only the level of imagination the board have, but the willingness they have to destroy the reputations of those who have truly served this club. They did it to Rodger, they did it to Neil Lennon, they did it to Rodgers again, and now they are doing it to a guy who is a legend in the MLS, a guy who is extremely highly rated by objective, analytical experts , who’s actual job it is to judge these things. Who the fuck are you to right this guy off after three supremely difficult games , half way through a season, with no front line and all our best defenders injured. What credentials do you have to shout this guy needs to go. You are a fucking prize clown, and you and all those other “supporters” who left the game with 20 minutes to go are not worthy of supporting this club.
As ever Andy, you are spot on. Couldn't have said it better.
You are up there with the legendary pantheon of astute and shrewd footballing journalists, who call it as they see it. Celtic FC is the Sick Man of British Football just now, a laughing stock under this amateur, naive and arrogant manager Nancy from the footballing MLS backwaters. If the Celtic Board don't sack Nancy over night, they are cutting their own throats. They will lose the League, Scottish Cup and get bounced out of European by this French/American chancer of a project manager.