Scottish Premiership sack race update: New names enter fray as Wilfried Nancy remains under threat
Steven Pressley and David Martindale will be fearing the sack at Dundee and Livingston respectively as Wilfried Nancy remains under real pressure as Celtic boss.
Nancy has not even been at Celtic for a month, but has already come close to losing his job with fans outraged at how his side performed in his first four games as manager.
Celtic were beaten 3-0 by Roma after Hearts emerged with a 2-1 win in his first match at the helm, and many Hoops fans wanted Nancy sacked after such a poor start.
A loss to St Mirren in the Premier Sports Cup final followed, as well as another away at Dundee United, but Nancy finally oversaw his first win in charge against Aberdeen on Sunday to relieve some pressure on his job.
Celtic beat the Dons 3-1 at Parkhead to remain in the title race with Hearts, with numerous other Scottish Premiership managers now potentially set to be sacked before Nancy.
Steven Pressley and David Martindale under pressure
Pressley surprisingly returned to management with Dundee in June after six years out of the hotseat following a short spell in charge of Carlisle United in 2019.
The 52-year-old has been unable to transform the Dees’ form this season, after they finished one place above the relegation play-offs last term, following an impressive sixth-placed finish the year before.
Dundee have won just three of their 18 league games so far in 2025-26, with 13 points leaving them 10th in the top flight amid a run of just one victory in their last nine outings.
Pressley is undoubtedly under pressure to turn things around right now, but his opposite number at Livingston, Martindale, is arguably even closer to the sack due to their current precarious position in the table.
The 51-year-old has been at the helm at the Almondvale Stadium for the last five years, and he led Livingston back to the Premiership at the first time of asking last season after relegation in 2023-24.
Their poor showings so far this term have drawn parallels to that relegation campaign, with the West Lothian-based side having won just once so far in 2025-26.
Livi sit bottom of the Scottish top flight as it stands, with Martindale surely set to be relieved of his duties if their four-month winless streak continues for much longer.
Martindale has backed Nancy ahead of Livingston vs Celtic
Football Insider have revealed that Celtic are set to stick by Nancy after his first win as boss against Aberdeen, with Saturday’s clash at Livingston providing a great chance for a successive victory.
Whoever loses out of Martindale and the Frenchman may still lose their job following the game, but the former has backed the Celtic manager to get things right after a rocky start.
Speaking to the media ahead of their game, Martindale said: “The plethora of players that he’s got available to choose from and the longer he’s going to be in the club, I think the stronger they are going to get.
“When you bring a coach in with not really any coaching experience in Scotland, I think there’s always going to be that adaptation period.
“And then you probably throw in there a change of shape, it means it’ll be a bit more difficult again.
“But if you’re a coach and your philosophy has a certain style of play, why would you wait to implement it? Because surely the quicker you implement it the better you get at it.
“So for me, I find some of the comments I’ve seen on social media and some of the comments I’ve heard on television really extreme and really disappointing but it’s the modern-day game. I am not really surprised by them.”