Wilfried Nancy: Celtic boss retains backing from board despite losing first four games in charge | Football News

Celtic boss Wilfried Nancy has the full backing of the board, despite losing his opening four matches.

Pressure is mounting on the new manager after losing to Hearts, Roma, St Mirren and Dundee United in his first 15 days in the job – their worst run since 1978.

Nancy has had a routine chat with the club hierarchy to discuss the plans going forward, recruitment, as well as wider topics of adapting to life in Scotland and security.

Nancy took training at Lennoxtown as normal, as the Hoops prepare to face Aberdeen at Celtic Park on Sunday.

Sky Sports News understands the club chiefs are on board with Nancy’s vision for Celtic and have been fully supportive of his desire to change the system immediately.

It is believed they feel they are getting a better idea of which current squad members can fit into the new system, to focus on which areas will need recruitment in the January and summer transfer windows.

This was reiterated yesterday when CEO Michael Nicholson told Celtic TV he had held talks with Nancy regarding recruitment for the next two transfer windows.

During last night’s 2-1 defeat to Dundee United at Tannadice, a large section of Celtic fans chanted for Nancy to go. There were also chants of “Martin O’Neill” – who took interim charge of the club after Brendan Rodgers’ shock departure – winning seven of his eight games.

Nancy, 48, was appointed from Columbus Crew – on the recommendation of Celtic’s head of football operations Paul Tisdale.

Tisdale is currently on holiday, but is understood to be in close contact with club staff and working towards the January transfer window.

Sutton: ‘Nancy’s way isn’t working’

Speaking after Wednesday’s defeat, former Celtic striker Chris Sutton admitted he had sympathy for the position Nancy found himself in, but conceded that his way wasn’t working since taking the reigns from Martin O’Neill.

“I have massive sympathy for him,” Sutton said. “Celtic aren’t in pre-season and if Nancy had a whole pre-season you can maybe see things panning out differently.

“He hasn’t got that. He’s saying he hasn’t got time, so it is going to be incredibly difficult to get this side going.

“Since Martin O’Neill left, the confidence of certain players has dropped. The bottom line with Celtic and it has been like this all season, is that it isn’t working.

“He needs to get his team performing and some belief in the fanbase. Sunday is going to be really interesting, the atmosphere inside Celtic Park and how that goes.

“Celtic have to win the league this season to get in the Champions League and that is the be-all and end-all.

“The difference between Glasgow football and everywhere else is once the fanbase turn on the manager, that’s it and I don’t know if we are too far off that. That’s Nancy’s problem and that’s why Sunday (at home to Aberdeen) will be fascinating.

“I think he should have come in and managed the situation. I don’t think he’s necessarily done that. He’s come in and said, ‘I’ll be the coach and do it my way’.

“Well Wilf’s way, at this moment in time, isn’t working and that’s a problem.

“I think Nancy has qualities as a coach and you can see some of the rotations and his ideas… he’s come in and he’s changed things.

“He said he spoke to Martin O’Neill and spoke to him for 15 minutes. He said before the game, ‘Martin has his way, and I have mine’. Losing four games on the spin, his way isn’t working.”

‘What you should focus on’ – The Venn diagram that caused a storm

Ahead of the game at Tannadice Park, Nancy appeared to update his profile picture on X of a Venn diagram with the captions “Things you can control”, “Things that matter.” There was then an arrow pointing to the middle of the diagram that was labelled “What you should focus on.”

Without context, the image appeared to be a subtle response to the noise regarding his future at Celtic Park just two weeks into the job, where some sections of the fanbase have already called for his departure.

When fans spotted the profile change, it quickly went viral and the account eventually was turned private.

Nancy later claimed that the picture in question was not related to Celtic and linked back to his time at Columbus Crew.

“My wife was not happy and to be honest, believe me or not, the profile was about Columbus,” he told BBC Sport.

“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.”

Dundee United’s mocking response to Nancy post

Had Wednesday night finished with a victory, perhaps this would be a flash-in-the-pan story. However, United’s remarkable second-half comeback did nothing to help matters. And nor did their full-time celebrations.

After the final whistle, the club’s official X account posted an image captioned “focusing on a huge three points,” making reference to the statements in Nancy’s upload.

To make matters worse, the post also mocked the Venn diagram by creating a parody one that included the scoreline.

What’s next for Celtic?