Celtic are chaotic on and off the pitch

WILFRIED Nancy was given a gift by outgoing Celtic manager Martin O’Neill that few other men in his position have been lucky enough to receive.

O’Neill had taken an unhappy and poorly-functioning Celtic team and moulded them into a confident one who had hit a run of form—in results if not in performances. He had trimmed Hearts’ lead at the top of league and put Celtic into a cup final.

As he handed over the reins to the hapless current incumbent, he could direct him to a dream start to his time at the club. His first match against an out of form Hearts side, at home, could see Nancy take Celtic to the top of the table. His second match against Roma required only competence, with any sort of result being a bonus. In his third match he had the chance to send serial winners out on to the large Hampden pitch against a St Mirren side loitering around the bottom of the league to lift his first silverware.

Rather than act pragmatically, and give respect to the club and supporters by taking these opportunities seriously, Nancy—who assured all and sundry that he is a humble man—arrogantly ripped up the plan used by O’Neill, Shaun Maloney and Mark Fotheringham to right the listing ship and unveiled his own favoured tactical system.

That system—apparently a 3-4-3 masterplan, but in reality simple old-fashioned chaos—is what Nancy can thank for the pressure he is now under. He has only himself to blame, but it is the Celtic support who are left feeling the pain, having trudged out of Hampden Park in the miserable knowledge that already in open conflict with the club’s board, they must now add an incoherent manager who looks incapable of living up to the responsibilities of his role.

Wealthy, but wasteful

It is all the more appalling that this is where Celtic find themselves when the financial strength of the club is considered. Celtic are in a position that no club in the history of Scottish football has ever found themselves in. Not only do Celtic’s resources and cash reserves dwarf every other club in the top flight, they dwarf every other club in the top flight combined.

The simple question which needs to be asked is: what is the point of that resource? The Celtic board have proclaimed their fiscal prudence in engineering this position, but they have never explained satisfactorily why they have done so.

It hasn’t led to the development of the club’s potential, it hasn’t led to stadium development and it hasn’t led to the construction of the promised hotel and facilities. It has sat in a bank account while Celtic have lumbered through transfer windows with nothing serious to show for it, and has been conspicuous by its absence as Celtic’s apparently exhaustive attempt to secure a new manager led them to that famous footballing Mecca—Columbus, Ohio—and saw them return triumphantly with a manager no-one had heard of and whose achievements to date do not suggest a successful leader for the club.

Will that money and resource now be put at his disposal in the January transfer window, to help him pursue the personnel for his hare-brained system? Plentiful as Celtic’s millions are, Nancy is hardly making a strong case for the club committing more fully to this experiment.

Lack of leadership

Fans of the club are rightly concerned by the state Celtic have been led into on the park, but of greater concern is the condition of the club as an institution, and that was brought home to supporters and shareholders in shocking fashion at the club’s AGM.

That gathering was unedifying enough as the supporters and custodians lined up against each other in an atmosphere of bad blood and recrimination, but it was only made worse by the intervention of Ross Desmond, the son and apparent deputy of Celtic’s billionaire major shareholder.

For supporters to be subjected to his appalling attack on them, as he tucked himself in at the top table wearing a club tie and assuming a position of authority, which he has no right to, disgraced a proud club. It was painful for Celtic supporters.

Something has to change, and urgently. The Celtic support has endured bad managers before, and stood by their club as results collapsed, but to look on helplessly as their club enters self-destruct mode, while those entrusted with seeking the best for Celtic demonstrate that they are not fit for the task, is a very different position to be in.

The hope, of course, is that good relations can be somehow re-established, and that Wilfried Nancy begins to comprehend the scale of his task and the unsuitability of his dogmatic approach to a club where—as Martin O’Neill said—results are all that matter. It would be a pleasure to eat humble pie and see Celtic click into gear and go on the march again. Looking at the form guide, however, what seems more likely is a deepening crisis and further entrenchment by the warring sides.

The soundtrack to the festive Celtic support in recent years has been the good-natured reworking of Wham’s Last Christmas, each year honouring one figure or another who is distinguishing themselves to the benefit of Celtic. Christmas 2025 will be lean one for anyone searching for a hero. We won’t be hearing it this year. That’s a very sad fact.