Wilfried Nancy – A warm welcome to Celtic

A warm welcome to Wilfried Nancy who has been officially announced as manager of Celtic football club after joining from MLS outfit Columbus Crew on a two and half year deal.

Nancy was apparently the first choice in the eyes of the Celtic hierarchy, so we can only applaud them for persuading him to join the club, if only they were that competent when it mattered when it came to signing our number one playing targets in the last two transfer windows.

Whilst Wilfried was the club’s first choice, he certainly wasn’t the supporters, but he’s here now, has just signed on the dotted line so we can only offer him our unequivocal backing, he deserves nothing less after all. Every incoming Celtic manager has the support’s backing from day one and Nancy is no different.

One thing no new Celtic manager is allowed too much of – and this applied to Wilfried Nancy – is time. He also needs to earn the trust and respect of the supporters, so it’s of vitally importance that he starts on a positive note, beginning with a victory over Hearts on Sunday afternoon.

When he heard about the Celtic job Celtic were trailing Hearts by eight points, confidence was low and Martin O’Neill and Shaun Maloney were recruited on an interim basis to steady the ship. They signed off last night by going level with Hearts and also have a game in hand, so a Celtic win on Sunday really will put us in the driving position to retain the title under the new manager.

Martin O’Neill also got the better of theRangers in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final so Wilfried’s second domestic match will be a cup final against St Mirren and the chance to lift some earlier silverware.

Sandwiched in between those two vital domestic games is a home match in the Europa League against Roma and that fantastic win in Rotterdam against Feyenoord that Martin O’Neill secured means that Nancy has a tremendous chance to progress into the latter stages of the competition if he can defeat the Italian side who have already beaten theRangers at Ibrox in an earlier round of Europa League matches.

The Frenchman will of course get a rousing reception when he appears in front of the supporters on Sunday afternoon at Celtic Park ahead of the match against Hearts. However once that first whistle is blown, all thoughts will be one thing only, and that is winning the game. Something that Wilfried will have to get acclimatised to, and quickly.

The challenges and the expectations are off the scale at Celtic in comparison to what he has previously experienced managing in Canada and the United States.

Welcome to Celtic Wilfried. Best of luck.