'I could have ...': Wilfried Nancy drops Celtic appointment bombshell and explains reasoning

Nancy made the revelation after landing his first win as Celtic boss at the fifth time of asking following a 3-1 win over Aberdeen at Celtic Park.

The Premiership champions needed two late goals from Kieran Tierney and James Forrest to secure the victory. They had taken a first-half lead through Benjamin Nygren and then Aberdeen had Dylan Lobban sent off just before the break. Nevertheless, they equalised on 75 minutes through Kenan Bilalovic to ensure a nervy ending.

Some Celtic pressure taken off Nancy

Celtic dominated the game and had 31 shots on goal. They hit the woodwork on four occasions. Nancy joked that he didn’t believe in luck until his arrival at Celtic, having watched his team pass up all manner of chances. The importance of this win cannot be overstated, as they remain six points behind leaders Hearts and some pressure has been relieved from the Frenchman.

Nancy explained after the match that he envisioned a difficult start to life as Celtic manager given the hectic schedule after his December 3 arrival - and claimed he could have postponed his arrival from Columbus Crew. However, he wanted the best possible chance to analyse the squad ahead of the January transfer window.

“That's why I came at this moment,” said Nancy when asked if the past fortnight had made his thoughts clearer on recruitment. “I could have come a little bit later but with the club we decided that it was the right moment because I needed time to assess the team and to evaluate.

“If I was thinking [just] about myself maybe it could have been a little bit later but the timing is the timing. That’s why I accept all the things that have happened. This is new for me and for the players to have four losses, but we have to go through that to see what we have to do and also to see the character of the team, the personality of the team and the personality of the players.

‘Their heads could have gone down’

“My first job is to analyse the team and after that we’ll see what we need, who we're going to bring if we need to bring someone.”

Nancy was pleased with the way his team responded to Bilalovic’s leveller, which came very much against the run of play. “I'm really proud of what they did because they had so many big chances and suddenly against ten men you concede a goal like this,” he said. “Their heads could have gone down but they didn't do it. They kept attacking.

“[It was] attack, attack, attack, attack, waves, waves, waves. The two goals we scored were the reward for the grit and the resilience that they showed. The fact that we had lost so many games and they were still able to come back was something I really enjoyed seeing.

“I don't believe in luck but since I’ve been here I haven’t had luck. It's true because when we played Hearts, I think about the way they scored the goal, and then after that against Roma we missed a penalty. We have hit the post in almost every game, but the most important thing is the resilience my players had.”