Wilfried Nancy has insisted he is not afraid of being sacked as Celtic manager. The beleaguered Hoops manager suffered a shocking second-half loss to Rangers, his sixth defeat in eight games. After squandering a first-half lead and crumbling after the interval in Saturday’s 3-1 loss, Nancy found herself teetering on the precipice.
Following the disastrous result, thousands of Celtic supporters staged a protest outside Parkhead, demanding changes to the club’s board and the manager’s resignation. Despite this, Nancy claims that she is not thinking about her future and remains confident that she can lead the team out of their current predicament. When asked about concerns that he might be fired, the former Columbus Crew head coach said, “I’m not thinking about that. I’m thinking about finding ways to help the team do well in every detail. We’re working with the board.”
Nancy admitted she understands fans’ frustration as Celtic’s season appears to be spiraling out of control. Rangers’ victory moved them level on second place with Celtic, but the Parkhead side have fallen into a serious slump.
Nancy said, “Yes, it’s a result. It’s a result. This is the reality for now. But when I say this is the reality, it doesn’t mean I’m a defeatist. No, what I’m saying is, we’re really, really close to turning things around. And again, I can understand this situation.”
“In terms of results, yes. You can’t deny that they got the result. Then they struggled in certain situations, but they found a way to win. You can’t deny that. So I think it’s close now, because I think if we had won the game, if we had scored a goal, it could have been different.”
“So this is the situation we’re in right now, and it could be tough if we lose, but I know our players will come back stronger.”
Celtic fans staged a large demonstration outside at the final whistle, and Nancy said: “I can understand that. I think they were leading us in the first half and they pushed us well. And after that I can understand them being disappointed in the fact that we had a lot of chances to win the game. I know it’s repetitive but it’s happened in the past for a lot of games.”
He added: “And I think they really enjoyed the first half. They saw a team, players who were giving their all, with and without the ball. So they understood the direction we wanted to go in, but they continued in a consistent way for 95 minutes. After that, I felt the fact that we knew what this game was about, and the disappointment for them.”
“But what I can tell them is that what we did in the first half and at certain moments in the second half, this is what we want to do. But at the same time, we know that it’s not acceptable, we know that conceding goals like this are not acceptable. We know that, and this is what we’re going to work on.”
