MARTIN O’NEILL AND WILFRIED NANCY: “HERE’S WHAT YOU COULD’VE WON!”
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 10 minutes ago
- 3 min read
If you’re of a certain age like me, namely over 40, you’ll probably remember the classic darts-themed gameshow Bullseye. Hosted by the legendary Jim Bowen, it was must-see TV for me on Sunday afternoons.
Well, Jim Bowen’s catchphrase was to say to disappointed contestants who gambled and lost “Here’s what you could’ve won!”
He'd then commiserate them as the the prize they weren't getting was wheeled out. Sometimes it was a luxury holiday, sometimes it was a new car, and bizarrely enough, sometimes it was a speedboat.
Anyway, upon hearing Martin O’Neill speaking today on Talksport about his departure from Celtic, which wasn’t even two weeks ago but seems like an eternity now, I have to say in that moment, I knew exactly how also those disappointed contestants who risked it all “for the throw of a dart” must have felt.
Martin O’Neill and Wilfried Nancy: From The Sublime to The Ridiculous
The contrast between the second coming of Martin O’Neill and Wilfried Nancy’s utterly abject first three games in charge couldn’t be any starker. But the revelation tonight that Martin O’Neill was willing to stay longer, but Celtic’s Board told him he was no longer needed isn’t just pouring salt onto a wound.
For most Celtic fans it feels like being volleyed in the groin and then urinated upon from a great height, or indeed the unbearable agony of missing out on that speedboat on Bully’s prize board.
The most frustrating thing about this entire season so far is that every single problem Celtic have ran into thus far was completely preventable. In fact, in most cases, they were easily preventable. It is only a combination of arrogance, greed, and a corporate culture of “ah f*ck it, it’ll be alright” that has led to the current impasse.
And as I said on yesterday’s post-match ACSOM Bulletin, albeit with far more anger and less clarity than I have now, I still maintain that about 90% of the burden of blame for this predicament lies squarely at the feet of the Celtic Board.
Yes, Wilfried Nancy could have put his ego aside and played to the strengths of his current players. But even then, if a manager doesn’t command the respect of those players, and signs are that Nancy doesn’t, at least not at the moment, then there’s no guarantee that Celtic would have won even if the players had got their way and played as they wanted to.
We are seeing the exact same problem play out now as we did with Brendan Rodgers. A manager determined to do things his way, to not listen to the counsel of his senior players.
He also appears wedded irreversibly to a system that he simply doesn’t have the players available to him to make work effectively. Whether its next week or next year, it seems there’s only one way it can end unless something drastically changes.
Martin O’Neill didn’t do anything revolutionary in his all too brief return. He simply employed pragmatism, common sense, and played to the strengths, however limited some of those may be, of the players he had at his disposal.
Most importantly, he spoke to the players as people, and he commanded respect.
It wasn’t always the prettiest football but he got the results.
Nancy seems unable to give way to that pragmatism. I thought he might after admitting in his pre-match conference that he was perhaps moving too quickly, but then he goes and plays three at the back anyway. Now, don’t get me wrong, once Celtic have the appropriate players in place, between returning injuries and new arrivals, there’s every chance that a 3-5-2, 3-4-3 or variation thereof could work.
But that is at least a month away, probably longer, because in the current state of uncertainty, I don’t see Nancy being given the kind of backing he will need to reshape this entire squad into the kind of system he wants to play.
To paraphrase a famous quote from another Celtic fan: “All I want is Martin O’Neill back and a bag of cans” (cans optional).