A winter’s tale

 

 

A winter’s tale

Celtic’s reaction to the club’s latest defeat was swift and decisive. Wilfried Nancy became the manager with the shortest reign in Celtic’s 138-year history after being sacked after just 33 days in charge. It was brutal and there were mitigating circumstances surrounding his appalling 25%-win rate. Important players were injured, those who were fit struggled to adapt to his system of play and Celtic’s forwards squandered at least 20 great chances in Nancy’s 8 game tenure. The final straw came when Celtic failed to show up for the second half of the Glasgow derby, having controlled the first half and squandered some excellent chance to go in at the break more than one goal ahead. His team looked far too open at the back and individual errors were punished by a frankly very average Rangers side.

The Celtic players need to look at themselves too. Nancy’s system didn’t miss sitters or misplace passes. They can and should have been much better. There was confusion and discomfort in the team when Nancy changed the set up from day one, instead of building on what he had been left by Martin O’Neill. Celtic simply do not have the players to play his 3-5-2 system. To see Yang and McCowan being asked to play as wing backs was a reminder of how short the club is of specialist players. It was starkly brought home when Celtic lost two goals in the opening 8 minutes to a Livingston side who have averaged one goal a game this season. Both goals were caused by Livi exploiting the space down the right side of the Celtic defence.

Nancy seemed more bellicose in one of his final press conferences when the press badgered him on his future. He was a mixture of angry and fatalistic when he replied…

"So now, as you know, I need time. I know that I don't have time, as this is the way it is in my job, but with the small amount of time that I've had, I saw things that we did better than when with a team for four weeks in pre-season. Yes, I want to ask you: Give me time and you'll see my team. You're going to see what I'm going to do, because you can see already what I did before. I didn't start yesterday.”

As we know he wasn’t given any more time. Those in control didn’t see enough progress to continue with their experiment. The league season is just over half way through and Celtic sit 6 points behind Hearts. It will take a major improvement in form for Celtic to turn that around. They face Hearts away in 3 weeks with the tie coming only 3 days after a tough European trip to Bologna. Before then Celtic really need to be taking full points against Dundee United and Falkirk as well as seeing off Auchinleck Talbot in the Scottish Cup.  

Martin O’Neill will return to guide the club through the rest of the season and he knows the size of the fight Celtic have on their hands to retain their title. Football is a confidence and momentum game. O’Neill needs to get the squad motivated and believing in themselves again. He demonstrated during his initial interim spell in charge that with a pragmatic formation and some determination and fighting spirit, the squad can win games. He will hopefully have identified areas in need of strengthening in the side and suggested players who might come in and make a difference. The team is crying out for a striker to convert some of the chances they make. Things could have been very different for Nancy had the current strikers taken even 50% of the chances they created.

The board need to back O’Neill now, interim coach or not. There is still a chance this season in the SPFL and while that is the case, Celtic should fight for every point. If Celtic can stay in touch at the top of the league when the spring comes around, they will have both Hearts and Rangers to play at Celtic Park and a chance to put right some of the errors made this season. I still believe that the squad at Celtic Park is capable or rising to the challenges ahead. As Martin Luther King once said, 'The ultimate measure of a man is not when he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge.' 

These are certainly challenging times for Celtic; the club and its supporters have had an astonishing run of success in the past decade. Things have been tougher this season due to many factors, chiefly; injuries, a team coming to the end of its cycle and a manager who wanted to implement his changes too quickly and with little attention paid to the context he found himself in. The pressure to win is always intense at Celtic and I don’t think Wilfried Nancy fully grasped that. Martin O’Neill knows what is required at Celtic and should be given the tools to do the job.

The night is darkest just before dawn. Let’s hope the first rays of dawn are seen in our upcoming games. The challenge is there, Celtic. Now go and meet it.