BROTHER WILFRIED? NANCY CELTIC MANAGER DEAL CLOSE
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- Nov 15, 2025
- 4 min read
I said on the ACSOM Blog last week, and indeed on a recent ACSOM Bulletin, that it was very important, given all that’s currently going on in the background, that Celtic’s next managerial appointment not be, in any way divisive.
This ruled out, in my view, Robbie Keane, for reasons I’ve already stated and won’t go into again, and, sadly in my opinion, Kevin Muscat. He’s an excellent coach with a winning track record, however, those 20 minutes or so he played for Rangers back in the early 2000s continue to hang over him like the proverbial Sword of Damocles.
Meanwhile, Wilfried Nancy, another coach doing well in a league not so well known to the average Scottish football fan has emerged as the favorite for the job.
Sadly, the notion of “Wilfried Nancy: Celtic Manager” appears to have divided the support almost right down the middle.
Wilfried Nancy, Celtic Manager: Not the Cheap Option, But I Have Concerns...
First of all, in the name of fairness we have to torpedo one of the biggest counterarguments to Wilfried Nancy becoming the next Celtic manager: the idea that, yet again, this is the Celtic Board trying to do things on the cheap.
Nancy has, at time of writing a long-term contractual commitment to Columbus Crew, the MLS side he currently manages, as indeed do his backroom staff.
Now, it’s not going to be the￡5 million pounds Ipswich were supposedly talking about for letting Kieran McKenna go to Celtic. However, we are still talking about a significant seven figure sum to get Nancy and his team on-board. I am no fan of the Celtic Board, I believe that much is well-established for anyone who has read this blog over the past few months.
However, whilst there are, undoubtedly, plenty of areas where we can go after the board for failing to do their jobs properly, and not investing adequately, this is not one of them.
In actuality, in terms of purely monetary sums, Nancy would, in all likelihood, probably be a more substantial investment than many other candidates.
Indeed, many fans preferred option Kjetil Knutsen of Bodo Glimt becomes a free agent at the end of December, and, as things currently stand wouldn’t cost any compensatory fee to his club.
However, unfortunately, it seems unlikely he or another fan favorite Club Brugge’s Nicky Hayen would leave their respective clubs while they are still in the Champions League.
I was a vocal defender of the choice Celtic made when they appointed Ange Postecoglou in 2021 under similar circumstances. It’s well known that Celtic wanted Eddie Howe, but in the end, with Ange, I think we actually got a manager who was more in tune with our style of play and the kind of rejuvenation Celtic needed at that time.
So, the first-choice candidate doesn’t always turn out to be the best choice.
However, I think this is where the comparisons between Nancy and Postecoglou come to an end. They both achieved significant success in leagues some see as lesser than The Scottish Premiership. Now I don’t know the MLS. It’s a league that is never shown on TV here in Japan.
However, what I would say is, much like Japan, the US national team has continued to improve over the years, as has the quality of the league.
Yet I see many of the same “pub league” type insults being hurled the MLS’ way that were, in my opinion erroneously, put onto the J-League when Ange was first appointed.
Let’s be honest, football is a fickle game. Opinions change like the weather. If Nancy comes in, and continues the same attacking, intense football his Columbus Crew side has gained praise for, then I think the vast majority of Celtic fans will like what they see.
There are also the small matters of a League Cup Final in mid-December and a Glasgow Derby a few weeks later.
Win both those games, and whoever the new manager is, he becomes an instant hero.
My concern about Wilfried Nancy doesn’t stem from who much Celtic will pay to land him, or his coaching ability. Funnily enough I actually have the similar concerns about Nancy as I did when I previously discussed Kjetil Knutsen.
How much of Nancy’s success to date is down to his coaching ability, and how much of it is down to the fact that Columbus Crew, despite being a much smaller club than Celtic, are far, far better run behind the scenes.
The very public antipathy shown by Celtic’s largest shareholder (not our owner), Dermot Desmond, to our last permanent manager upon his departure is problematic in a number of ways.
Most of all though, I’m worried that he will want someone in the managerial hotseat who is the anti-Brendan Rodgers. Where Rodgers was vocal in his criticisms of both players and staff, Nancy may be more “reasonable” about things from Desmond’s point of view.
Much like Ronny Deila, Nancy may see it as his job to work with what he is given, rather than demand the best possible.
I don’t worry about the man’s ability to coach, and I’m actually excited if his coming to Celtic opens up a new player market for us in North America. Although we have two US internationals and a Canadian in our current first team squad, Alistair Johnston remains the only major success story we’ve had signing players directly from this market.
Funnily enough, it was Wilfried Nancy who coached Johnston at his previous club, CF Montreal, prior to him joining Celtic.
As time goes on it seems more likely that Nancy may, indeed, be Celtic’s new boss. I remain undecided as to whether it’s a good move or not. I simply don’t know enough about the man or his coaching style.
However, as I am sure all Celtic fans will agree, if Wilfried Nancy is our man, then he gets our 100% backing from day one.
