Graham Spiers has warned that Wilfried Nancy is facing a pressure-cooker situation heading into Sunday’s League Cup Final – and that defeat to St Mirren could trigger a full-blown meltdown across Scottish football.
The new manager has lost his first two matches in charge of the Hoops, which has seen Hearts push ahead in the league and Celtic needing four points in their final two Europa League matches to progress through the league stages.
It’s far from an ideal start, but the club have to unite and kick on from here.
Writing in his latest column on his Patreon, Spiers didn’t hold back in assessing the stakes for Celtic’s new manager following back-to-back defeats against Hearts and Roma.
“BUT what this does do is leave Wilfried Nancy in a jam. Because if he goes out this Sunday at Hampden and loses the League Cup Final to St Mirren then there will be hell to pay,” he said.
“I’ve seen it already. People will be going berserk. Idiot media imposters won’t just be complaining about the colour of Nancy’s shoes (and let’s face it…the colour is significant). They will be going all in on the new Celtic manager being a dud.”
While Spiers stood by his view that Martin O’Neill should have stayed on until the end of the season, he also defended Nancy’s coaching credentials and approach since arriving in Glasgow.
“It’s very unusual for me to be somewhat defending Nancy here because I’m openly on record as saying I think his coming should have been stalled – or postponed – to leave Martin O’Neill in charge until the end of this season at least. O’Neill had won 7 in 8, his touch had been beyond dispute.
“But I don’t doubt Nancy’s coaching credentials – they are impressive. They are better than Derek McInnes’s, for example. Nancy is an intelligent man and an intuitive coach.
“Being so may or may not suffice for being a successful Celtic manager – we shall see – but in the here and now what has Nancy done wrong? Nothing, so far as I can see. Nothing at all, save for arrive in Glasgow by jet plane, pitched in deep end.”
St Mirren arrive at Hampden as arguably the story of the season under Stephen Robinson, and Spiers is under no illusions about the danger they pose.
“Nancy cannot lose to St Mirren – which is perfectly conceivable. Of course it is. St Mirren are everybody’s surprise team — fit and physical — who have had a great time under Stephen Robinson in recent years. Who would write them off at Hampden on Sunday? Precious few of us.
“Nancy has to win, otherwise he’ll need earplugs to block out the hysteria. People will be going ballistic. The greatest idiots known to man will be citing his shoes, his track-suit, his tactics board, his underpants.”
Celtic’s new manager has no margin for error. Hampden must bring a result, or the backlash will be deafening.
It does feel like there are already some out to get him, slagging his footwear to his tactics board. He needs to rise above it and lift that trophy on Sunday, and doing it in style will probably help his case.
Kick off at Hampden is at 3.30 pm on Sunday.
