Wilfried Nancy remains convinced that his Celtic side is heading in the right direction, despite a bruising start to life in the Parkhead dugout.
The new Celtic manager says Sunday’s League Cup Final against St Mirren offers the chance to turn encouraging signs into silverware.
The new boss has watched his team lose back-to-back matches against Hearts and Roma, conceding five and scoring just once.
It’s been a whole new system implemented, completely different to what any of these players have played over the past few years, so it was always going to take time.
But speaking ahead of Sunday’s Hampden showdown, Nancy maintained belief in the direction of travel.
“I just came in. The standard that I want is clear. This is similar as Roma, you know, in terms of intensity and so on,” he said on Celtic TV.
“After that, the standard, we have it already. You know, because the desire to compete, the desire to train well, the desire to improve, this is the standard. The desire also to do what it takes to have good performance, we have it.
“After that, we have to be better in terms of execution. And we had good moments and we struggled a bit. But again, what I can tell you is we are on the right track.
“Where we are, this is the right track. So this is not enough. Understand me well, I know that. But again, for one week, I can see good stuff. But we need also to improve on certain things, but it will come.”
Nancy has repeatedly asked for time and patience this week, but knows that lifting the first domestic trophy of the season would go a long way in settling nerves and easing early tension around the club.
It’s been two very tough games so far from the manager. The timing of his arrival wasn’t great, but that doesn’t excuse poor results. Nancy has to guide Celtic back to winning ways, and he must do that urgently.
Celtic are chasing their first silverware of the campaign and Nancy is looking for his first win. Both feel like musts.
