Wilfried Nancy faces tough Celtic start with silver lining

Celtic’s Head of football operations Paul Tisdale put forward the Columbus Crew manager as a leading candidate for the role. Now, as per Stephen McGowan writing in The Herald, pending the final talks with Dermot Desmond, the Celtic board may move to finalise a compensation deal before next Friday’s Annual General Meeting at Celtic Park.

The 48-year-old could potentially take charge in time for the away league match at St Mirren the following day. Should Nancy become the next Hoops manager, his first game at Celtic Park won’t be until next month.

Brendan Rodgers’ shock exit prompted Celtic to begin a manager hunt, with Nancy featuring among several options such as Ipswich Town’s Kieran McKenna, Ferencvaros boss Robbie Keane, Wales coach Craig Bellamy and Club Brugge’s Nicky Hayen.

Martin O’Neill accepted a short-term role, meeting with principal shareholder Dermot Desmond yesterday to discuss the direction Celtic are taking with their next boss.

Speaking to local BBC Belfast on Thursday, O’Neill said: “I am not party to anything that is happening with the board talking to prospective clients and things like this, nor do I want to be because that has never been a remit of mind.”

“My job was to come in and hold the fort and the minute that someone is appointed I will step aside.”

“And if that was tomorrow I would gladly step aside. It’s not a problem. It’s nothing to do with ego or anything like that. It’s just to help out in the very very short term.”

The Frenchman could be walking into a tough run of fixtures for the Scottish champions over the coming weeks. After St Mirren it is a trip to Feyenoord in the Europa League which is followed by an away encounter at Easter Road against Hibs in the Scottish Premiership.

Wilfried Nancy could win a trophy though next month when Celtic face St Mirren in the Premier Sports League Cup final. Celtic will if all goes to plan, go into that final having had different managers for the quarter final (Brendan Rodgers), semi-final (Martin O’Neill) and final (Wilfried Nancy).

Conor Spence