There is absolutely no sign that Columbus Crew are about to lose their manager to Celtic.
On November 14 Michael Gannon of the Daily Record announced that talks to bring the Frenchman to Scotland were at an advanced stage.
Following the international break Martin O’Neill has remained in charge of Celtic.
Winning three tough away matches and preparing for Dundee at home tomorrow night. This afternoon he’ll be joking and jousting with the media about his age and job prospects. Jock Stein might get a mention.
NEWS ACROSS THE POND
Over in Ohio, at the Columbus Dispatch there is nothing to suggest that their local soccer club is in the market for a new manager.
Last week they were reporting Nancy as Celtic as virtually a done deal. There has been absolutely no follow up stories.
All that Celtic fans have to go on are mangled updates from O’Neill. Alongside very authoritative reports from seemingly In The Know reporters.
On November 23, two days after the abandoned AGM, Peter Martin of PLZ Soccer reported:
Wilfried Nancy is all set for a December start as the new manager of Celtic.
I understand the 48-year-old French manager, currently in charge of MLS side Columbus Crew, is set to take over the Scottish Premiership champions on December 1st, if not before, depending on the completion of contracts for four members of his backroom staff who are expected to join him in Glasgow over the next seven days.
Seems like that source wasn’t telling the full story.
NO NEWS IS…
Suggestions that Nancy would be at Sunday’s match against Hibs were also wide of the mark.
With each passing day there are growing parallels with the 2021 Eddie Howe story.
Various informed reports claimed it was a done deal. Reports surface profiling Howe’s backroom team and likely signings.
Then attention switched to Ange Postecoglou.
Columbus Crew haven’t played since November 8, Brendan Rodgers resigned on October 27.
As the silence grows it is looking less likely that Nancy is Celtic bound.
Unfortunately fans are unlikely to hear from their CEO about his most important task. Appointing the most important employee of the club.
No prizes for guessing the first question put to O’Neill at today’s media conference. Celtic are now just 12 days away from the League Cup Final against St Mirren.
Who should manage Celtic in the League Cup Final
O'NEILL- No reason to change
NANCY- Get the new era started
They are slowly taking Martin O’Neill’s retirement years from him and they think nothing of it.
Shame on them!
I’ve been of a mind for a while now that this is going to fall through and they’ll end up foisting somebody like Gary O’Neill on us. I can imagine the stumbling blocks for Nancy being:
1- who has the final say on recruitment
2- the imposition of a club-picked backroom team
3- absence of reassurance that there will be no interference from above
If I was Wilfried Nancy, among the first people I’d ask about the job would be Brendan and Ange……
Who would tell him the chairman installed his son as head of recruitment, is known to appoint spies to the backroom team, has a long history of f***ing up important signings, imposing project signings on managers and briefing against them in the press when he falls out with them.
Attractive prospect, isn’t it?
He also has an impeccable record of asset-stripping both the Ist team, e.g. Jota, O’Riley, Kyogo, Kuhn & Idah and the 2nd team, Dembele(who was knocking on his door for a contract the day he left), and the £20m rated Vata, Kelly, and Cummings (who were all training for 6 months with the 1st team without a single start) and Anderson who was freed 3 days after receiving a personal and professional commendation from Stephen McManus after returning from a successful 2 year loan in Austria. All of these reserves were freed out-of-contract with no buy-back or sell-on clause in the last 2 years.
Add these playing and financial losses to the massive losses from failed ECL campaigns since our loss-leader returned to Celtic in 2003.
This is par for the course from this board,I’ll bet Nancy has done his homework and told desmond and liewell to fuckin do one!!!So what now for Celtic fans ,is it boycott time,cut off all monies,this board continues to ride roughshod over everyone and it’s like there’s nothing we can do about it.
I guess these things happen when you have a world class ( Nicholson ) sports lawyer on the staff .
We can only hope and pray that the performances on the pitch ain’t as bad as the performance to appoint the new manager for sure !
The ritual continues,all done in a timely fashion,err! perhaps not