'Win or fail': Celtic boss slammed for Hearts post-match comments as Parkhead decision labelled 'stupid'
The Celtic boss lost his first game in charge against league leaders Hearts on Sunday.
Celtic’s decision to appoint Wilfried Nancy has come under fire following his post-match remarks after the weekend loss to Hearts at Parkhead.
The 48-year-old was confirmed as the club’s new permanent manager last week on a two-and-a-half-year deal, replacing interim boss Martin O’Neill who had won seven of his eight games in interim charge, but suffered a damaging defeat in his first game in charge, as goals from Claudio Braga and Oisin McEntee helped title rivals Hearts secure a 2-1 win.
Despite falling three points behind the Tynecastle outfit at the top of the table, Nancy insisted he wasn’t “about losing or winning”, and that he was more concerned with “having a good performance” during his post-match press conference, which former England manager Sam Allardyce has slammed on his Footy Accumulators No Tippy Tappy Football podcast.
“He sounds like a school teacher,” said Allardyce. “What have Celtic done there? Only time will tell, of course, but Martin O’Neill is a man-manager. Martin looks at the whole situation and he manages on and off the field, he’s not really interested in coaching. He’ll get somebody else in to do that.
“He’s a Brian Clough type, and I hardly think there’s room for those managers now with the ‘sophisticated coaching’. Is coaching sophisticated? It’s not really, is it. He would’ve wanted to stay, he wouldn’t have gone back in the first place if he didn’t want to stay. Everybody loves him up there.
“I know Martin, he’s the chairman of the LMA [League Managers Association], and there would be no pressure from the LMA that he couldn’t stay as manager, we would just find another chairman. He will have gone in and wanted to prove why they should keep him. That’s what I would’ve done. How many interviews had they already done with Wilfried Nancy, what was the criteria? Is he one of those new boys who come with a glowing presentation? If you don’t look beyond the laptop, it’s stupid to pick the manager.”
Allardyce’s guest on the podcast, former Aston Villa boss Tim Sherwood, claimed the Celtic job is one of the best in Europe, but believes Nancy is risking his own future at Parkhead if he begins to complicate the role.
“It’s the best managerial job in Europe,” Sherwood said. “It’s the best job to put yourself back on the map to get back into the Premier League, with respect to that league. They’re a huge club, Celtic, and so is Rangers. Hearts are poking their nose in at the moment, but you win or you fail.
“You’ve got the tools to win with [at Celtic], you’ve got the best players. So if you do your job right and get the best out of them, you don’t have to be sophisticated, like O’Neill has shown. It’s the easiest job in European football. My advice to him would be, don’t try and complicate it. You might get the performances, but you won’t get the results.
“When you finish second to Hearts or Rangers, it’s unacceptable. You will go and get another job in the MLS. If you’ve got the best players, it doesn’t matter how you play, as long as you’re keeping them doing what they’re best at, you’ll win the games.”
The full episode of the podcast is able to be listened to here.
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