Wilfried Nancy has demanded more time to make his mark at Celtic after an extraordinary seven-minute rant.
Nancy has won two of his seven games in charge and lost his remaining five, which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports on Saturday.Celtic are second in the Scottish Premiership and will play rivals Rangers on Saturday.
Celtic announced on Friday that they had signed Julian Araujo on loan from Bournemouth in January, but when asked if he believed the club’s board would support Nancy in building the team she wanted, the manager began to passionately defend his tenure so far.
Saturday, January 3rd 11:30am
12:30pm kickoff
Full text: Nancy’s extraordinary rant
Nancy said, “Yes, one step at a time. I know you’re doing your job, and I know your job is to attack me and ask me a lot of questions, and that’s fine. But this is just the beginning.”
“Normally we have four or five weeks of pre-season. I didn’t have pre-season and I know why. I came two days after the game, which by the way, we should have won.”
“So, actually, before I got here, I knew it was going to be tough if I didn’t win games, because that’s part of the job.”
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Hearts beat Nancy’s Celtic in the Frenchman’s first game in charge.
“But I’m happy to be here. We know where we are now. I’m not an underdog. I want my team to be able to compete against any team. But given the circumstances, I knew this situation happened. So, as you know, we need time now.”
“I know I don’t have time, because this is how I work. But I found that I did better when I had a team for four weeks in the preseason because I had limited time. So, yes, I’d like to ask you, please, give me time. Look at my team.”
“You know what I’m going to do now, because you already know what I’ve done before and I didn’t start yesterday. So if I do my job, you’ll know what I’ve done in the past, how I play, what I want to do, how I want to defend, how I want to attack.”
Under Nancy, Celtic have built a very high defensive line, with wing-backs placed furthest forward and, on average, only one centre-back left in their own half.
“People are not happy, the fans and the people and myself, of course. I’m not happy because I only see a little bit of what I’m doing. But this is only after 12 or 13 sessions, so I’m happy with it. This is the background.”
“The situation is, like tomorrow, it’s a big game. But my situation is that I only have 13 practices with the team. And normally we have four weeks of preseason.
“So it’s totally normal for you guys to kill me. I’m okay with that. I’m okay with that because I know where I want to go. Judge me in a few weeks, a month. But if you want to judge me now, you can do it.”
“Because it’s true that we didn’t get the results we wanted. That’s a fact. You can’t deny that.
“But before that, do your job. And I know you’re doing it. Look at the way I am as a coach, the way I am as a manager and what I want to bring to the team. And you’ll see that we’re not there yet. New players, a little bit of time.”
“Some of the players have been here five, six, seven years. They’ve been doing certain things a certain way. It’s no joke that it takes time.
“Guys, seriously. Seriously. Yeah, I’d be a liar if I said everything was happy and everything was fine. No, it’s not. But I’ve known that all along, because this is part of my job. So I’m calm about every question you ask me.”
“I’m not happy to hear that people don’t like me or whatever. What am I going to say? They have a right to say it. Because in terms of results, this is not what we want. But if you do your job, you can see what I’m doing.”
“And if you have a little patience, I know we can’t be patient with this job, but you’ll see what I can do. For now, this is a tornado. I knew it. Whether it’s easy to deal with or not, it’s not. But I’m ready for it.”
“This is my message to you: the fans, you, everyone. This is the reality. And we knew that for a while on the board when I came.
“It’s very normal for players to take a little bit of time. It’s completely normal for players to be confused at certain moments because it’s a process.”
“I don’t like the word process, because sometimes people think I’m trying to hide behind process. But it’s true. Judge me. No problem. But look, analyze every game we played. And analyze whether we should have won the game or should have lost the game. Do it. Because this is your job. Do it.”
“I don’t like to speculate. I’m a clear man. For now, I can’t talk. I keep my mouth shut because the results are not good enough. I keep my mouth shut. And I accept it. But I know where we are going.”
“After that, I don’t know if it’s going to work or not. But I know I’ll give it my all. That’s why I’m here. After that, yes, I want to win every game. Yes, I want to bring titles to Celtic. Yes, I want to make memories. I want to create a legend here. Yes, I’m going to die for this club. For sure.”
“But considering the situation, I struggle with it. Criticism is part of my job, so I struggle with knowing that if he gets into this position we will be able to outscore the opposition. But for now, we don’t really need to do that. For now, we are only playing with a back three in attack.”
“But if you do your job, you’ll see that I’m not a back three player. I attack in different ways. But the players need time to understand what I want to do.”
Benjamin Nygren has been Celtic’s top scorer in all competitions so far this season.
“Here’s my message. And then you’ll see. But my job…this is not normal, but expect it to be expected. You don’t win, you get killed. You win, okay.”
“People have a right to not be happy, so I understand that. At every club I’ve been to, the connection with the fans has been damaged. Now I’m halfway through the season and they’re winning and we’re losing. So I need time. And I understand the background to that.
“I understand that Celtic is Celtic. I understand that the culture here can be different and so on. I understand everything. But I don’t like to promise anything. I could have said, ‘I’m going to commit to delivering results. Come on, come on.’
“My promise is that I’m going to do everything to get back on track and be consistent. Just because I’ve been on track doesn’t mean I’m going back on track because the way the season is. But again, I’m not a big guy and I understand why I am, because if I’m not mistaken, we’re only second.
“We’re able to control a lot of things because it’s a long season, but it’s like we’re at the bottom because we lost some games. So I understand the context.
“I want to please the players, I want to please the club, I want to please the fans, that’s why I’m doing this job. But for now, yes. I understand this narrative. I’m not saying I accept it, but this is not a debate.”
So, do you think some of the criticism is unfair?
“No, I’m not here to talk about unfairness or fairness. People might say, you’re different from the guy next door, you’re different from the guy next door. Maybe you’re going to say something different. You don’t have the same perspective. I don’t know. I’m not here to judge or say anything about it. That’s a fact.”
How long should fans wait?
“I didn’t say second place was good. I never said that. Please understand me. I know I’m French, but I never said that. I just explained the situation we’re in. So after that, I was asked about time. I’m not trying to buy time. In my job, you can’t buy time. The only moment you can buy time is when you win a match. I know that.”
“I have to win games, I have to win games to buy time. This is the job. So, I don’t have an answer. What I know is that we train every day. Every day we try to get better. Every time we try to improve. This is something I can quantify.”
“But the time after that is subjective. It’s the time to win the match. So I can’t answer your question.”
