Nancy on 'beautiful experience' at Celtic, tactics board & Martin support
· Yahoo Sports
Former manager Wilfried Nancy has given his first interview since his 33-day Celtic tenure ended in January.
Here are the key points from his chat on the Training Ground Guru podcast:
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- Despite losing six of eight games and being sacked a month into a two-and-a-half year deal, Nancy describes his time at Celtic as "a beautiful experience".
- "I do my job with passion and I look for players with passion and this club the fans and the city we feel it, it's been amazing for that," he said. "Obviously things could have been better, but life is about moments. On refection when I went there it was not a good moment."
- He has "no bad words about my time there", adding: "It's part of my journey. I am at peace with myself with what happened. That's why I can take it in a good way."
- The Frenchman says it is a "a no-brainer that I didn't have enough time" as he was brought in to change the culture. "We had a plan because I also did my due diligence," he said. "My idea was not to change everything but step by step to bring something new but after that the pressure, it's so huge, it happens the way it happens.
- He had "huge" support from the club hierarchy but: "After that it's the results and in our job if you don't get the results it's difficult."
- He wanted to turn off Sky Sports News on club property: "The environment is so critical, so important. I had an idea that I wanted to shut down Sky News. I had discussions with people at the club about it. When you come into a facility the TV is on and you get unconsciously information and pressure and pressure. When results are bad and you come into a safe environment and you get news about the players were not good and the coaches were not good, 'I think you should be doing this' and that's why this job is difficult, that's why the safe environment is important."
- Nancy says he was "destroyed" for using a tactics board during games but insists: "I will use it again because it's a tool. Because I am visual and sometimes when there is emotion and pressure it's easier to show we are going to attack like this and sometimes because there's a lack of translation because I'm French its easier.
- On the venn diagram from his X account - showing overlap on things that matter and things you can control - that went viral: "I didn't do it on purpose, my wife wasn't happy with me, she said I was trending on Twitter. I just put the image I had on the dressing room at Columbus Crew instead of an emoji on my WhatsApp."
- Ex-Rangers manager Russell Martin has reached out to him: "I respect him as a person but also as a coach. What he did at Southampton was amazing, especially when he was in the Premier league, because I remember games he played in a certain way. He has a way to see football that I like. It's a weird story and a funny story because we were together in Glasgow and didn't succeed over there. It doesn't mean we are good or bad, but that this is part of our journey."