Former Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy has opened up on his football philosophy, in his first interview since leaving the Hoops.
Nancy’s brief and turbulent spell in Glasgow lasted just 33 days, during which Celtic suffered four straight defeats and tensions quickly grew between the Frenchman and supporters.
His comments at the time about “going beyond winning” drew criticism from fans already frustrated by results, particularly given the impressive form achieved under Martin O’Neill.
Looking back on that period, Nancy says he has little time for what he describes as empty rhetoric around success.
Speaking on the Training Ground Guru Podcast, he said: “It’s easy to say ‘I want to win,’ but I can tell you many examples that people say they want to win, but they didn’t do certain things. So I’m sorry, you don’t want to win? So this is the nuance.”
The ex-Celtic boss admitted defeat is emotionally difficult for anyone in football, but stressed that character and responsibility in difficult moments are what truly define successful teams.
“Nobody likes to lose,” Nancy explained. “Because when you lose, there is a lot of emotion that comes. You can talk bad to yourself, you can put yourself down, you can be less confident. No problem with that. But also, you can balance with the way that you’re gonna be as a person.”
“It’s not because I’m going to say, ‘I’m going to win’ every day that I’m gonna win,” he said. “Sorry [for] my language, but this is bull****.’
“So this is about: what do you do to do it? And this, I am extremely, extremely demanding with that. With the attitude. With the behaviour. Especially on the pitch.”
The former Celtic boss also questioned the mentality of players who shy away from responsibility during difficult moments in matches.
“There [are] many players in my job, that they like to say they want to win, but when this is difficult on the pitch, they don’t show,” Nancy added. “They don’t ask [for] the ball. They don’t want to make a mistake.
“But for me, I see a good team when they act when [it] is difficult.”
“But for me, when you are in the arena? Show me that you’re gonna win. Easy to talk to the media, easy to practice well and so on. But now with the pressure? Show!”
Conor Spence
Quick Tip – Add Celticshorts.com as your ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the Celtic content you value the most. It takes just a few seconds and you’ll notice the difference straight away! – Click HERE….Hail Hail!
