GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 03: Celtic Manager Wilfried Nancy during a William Hill Premiership match between Celtic and Rangers at Celtic Park, on January 03, 2026, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images)
MLS Moves reckons that Celtic have made a huge blunder by sacking Wilfried Nancy.
Apparently the former Columbus Crew coach is the next big thing in soccerball. Nancy is destined for bigger things than Celtic!
The evidence of the last eight matches, over 33 days says otherwise.
NANCY- THE WORST EVER
There is no competition, Nancy is the worst manager in Celtic’s history.
It is unlikely that any permanent manager in the history of Scottish football has a worse record.
A 25% win rate. Two victories. One against the club at the bottom of the SPFL, without a win since August.
The other win was over Aberdeen, on Sunday Jimmy Thelin beat Nancy to the sack by a couple of hours.
Hes bloody awful and a fraud. A one trick pony with no ability to use the squad to their ability. His tactics are naive and he’s a fantasist. He got found out. MLS is his level.
— Joseph P Sloan prc (@sloanybhoy7) January 6, 2026
More realistically
— E-Tims (@ETimsNet) January 5, 2026
MLS Moves seems to sum up the mindset of soccer in the USA.
Nancy had been in North America for 20 years before taking on the Celtic job. Before that he had spend his playing career in the French equivalent of the Lowland League.
CARLISLE UNITED!
And he almost joined Carlisle United. Anyone with an awareness of Celtic would know not to use that line as a deflection. Nancy used that after defeat at Dundee United, his fourth defeat as Celtic boss. In four matches.
You can never generalise, there are smart fans in North America. Like the Montreal Celtic Twitter account.
They know the differences between xG and reality. From Columbus Crew to Celtic.
Nancy was as bad a fit as imaginable for Celtic. His command of English was as big a handicap as his lack of ability.
Nancy was a very costly mistake, one that will take an awful lot to recover from. Clearly Michael Nicholson has to be the next to be sacked. Like Nancy the ‘leading sports lawyer’ is wholly unsuited for the job that he is draining a salary for.
Should Michael Nicholson be sacked as Celtic CEO?
YES- The clear out of dross must continue
NO- Mikey is a leader and a right good Celt
Barry Smith, while managing Brechin City in the Championship when they began plummeting through the divisions from Championship to Highland League, had a win rate of just 18.18%. Wilfried Nancy was approaching this level of ignominy and couldn’t possibly continue in post.
A US-based pal (an Aberdeen fan) follows Columbus Crew and genuinely reckoned this would be a great appointment for us and had wanted him for Aberdeen instead. I think all this failed experiment does is prove that MLS is nowhere near the level they seem to think it is – its too nicey nicey and just doesn’t have the cut-throat nature of established European leagues. Hopefully there’ll be no more delusional ‘Ted Lasso’ appointments for us from now on.
Having lived in the States for several years, I attended a few MLS games.
My main observations were that it felt like watching [almost] pre-season friendlies,
or training session games.
And, the foreign players stood out significantly above the local players.
It was always an enjoyable day out though.
The announcement of Nancy’s appointment didn’t impress:
just seemed like a cheap option. So no surprises there then…
Successful coaches from the MLS – like Jesse Marsch and especially Bob Bradley – that club owners (usually American owners) have tried to foist on the EPL have never been close to successful. In Scotland the record is arguably worse – Nancy was a calamity and Steven Glass at Aberdeen not much better.
Nicholson is another who is completely out of his depth, his decisions in the last year have cost the club around £40million. Failure to sign adequate players in the summer cost us CL revenue, followed by appointments of not 1 but 2 people, Tisdale and Nancy, who were not close to the required standards. This isn’t poor governance, it is corporate suicide. He needs removed today.
What i cant understand here is that of all DD companies and his interests in companies his interest ,38% in celtic is by far his most high profile of all and without a doubt the one his name is associated with rightly or wrongly.
With that said would any CEO at any of his companies where he either owns or has the largest interest allow said ceo to continue on with the complete clusterfuck of this season in monetary terms?, i would wager london to a brick No!. The man is ruthless, I expect both the ghost who walks and the mannequin to both be shown where the abbyess actually is that they have been staring into so long for.
Reminds me of an Oor Wullie cartoon from years ago…
American Vistor: “Everything is bigger in America”
Oor Wullie: “Aye, including yer heids”.
Says it all.
Absolutely spot on Joe. Nicholson should be next to be go.
There seems to be absolutely no leadership qualities in Nicholson at all and he also gives the impression of a distaste for those less fortunate that himself, clearly demonstrated by his contemptuous behaviour.
He lacks class and looks to be devoid of any sort of discernment or clear and thoughtful decision making. He is definitely NOT a problem solver. There should be no place at OUR club for him as he seems NOT to be aware of its foundation values and treats fans as though they were scum, instead of trying to listen understand their concerns by meeting with appropriate groups and listening to their them.
Instead of this they provoked fans at the AGM and made no attempt to listen or enter discussion. Shutting down the AGM seems clearly planned to ensure that fan groups could not have their concerns voiced.
He should not be the last to go, but he should be next – and quickly.
And of course, the conundrum is that whilst we will be happy to see Nicholson depart,
who replaces him?
With DD still pulling the strings, it’s hardly likely to be a Dom McKay type?
It’s more likely going to be another Nicholson type: and/or an internal appointment ?
Changes can – and must be made – but replacing ‘like for like’ is not going to move
the club any further forward.
[And I can’t believe that a NED [DD] – again – was allowed to add this own words
to the official club statement about the Nancy departure.
Just makes CEO MN look even more submissive.]
Even if ma wee Clachnacuddin FC had played a friendly v Celtic…
Under Nancy Boy they’d have had a chance of winning !
. Maybe we should make it widely known that we are customers as well as fans , as thr customer is always right . The Celtic Customer Collective might be viewed by the greater corporate community with more sympathy?
@Ulyssesgunt
We the Celtic Community, Supporters/Customers/Shareholders don’t require to be viewed by the’greater corporate community’ with more sympathy but simply viewed with greater ‘Respect’. Its ‘us’ that keeps all their wheels turning. Its our money, energy and loyalty that supports their businesses and they would do well to remember that. Loyalty to Celtic, the ethos, the community is not the same as loyalty to the Celtic Brand which is purely conditional and transactional and which can be removed.
Where we went wrong with the up and coming Real Madrid bound talent of Wilfried Nancy, was that we should have brought over his personal translator from Columbus Crew.
Employed our own Anglo-French interpreter so both could convert the MLS unintelligible bullsh*t into SPFL understandable bullsh*t, what a blunder we’ve made!