Wilfried Nancy addresses social media storm as Celtic boss offers explanation for viral post

The Frenchman, who was appointed only two weeks ago after arriving from Columbus Crew in the MLS, is already under severe pressure after becoming the first Celtic boss in history to lose his first four matches in charge, with the 2-1 defeat to Dundee United at Tannadice on Wednesday marking the first time since January 1978 that the Hoops have lost four games in a row.

The previous evening, an account on X under the username @wilfriednancy, which was set up in Canada in 2011 and has been tagged by his previous clubs, issued what was perceived to be a defiant message to his critics.

The post contained the hashtag #NewProfilePicture and showed a Venn diagram of two overlapping circles captioned 'Things That Matter' and 'Things You Can Control', with an arrow pointing to the overlapping area alongside the message, 'What You Should Focus On'.

The image had been been viewed over 3.2 million times, re-posted over 1000 times and generated 550 replies before the account was locked on Wednesday.

The oblique message left Celtic fans unimpressed with the majority of replies ranging from disbelief to embarassment.

However, Nancy offered an explanation for the post prior to kick-off at Tannadice, claiming that he was simply trying to update his profile picture from an old Columbus Crew one.

Nancy told BBC Sportsound: “My wife was not happy and to be honest, believe me or not, the profile was about Columbus.

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

“Simple as that. So it was not a mistake or something. I don’t want to create a battle so simple as that.

“I did it because my picture was looking upstairs in the locker room of Columbus so I just wanted to change what I have on my WhatsApp. Simple as that.”