Wilfried Nancy finally achieves Celtic first as new ‘heartening’ footage emerges
Wilfried Nancy led his team to consecutive wins for the first time since his appointment when they beat Livingston on Saturday.
Celtic were considering sacking Nancy just weeks into his tenure at Parkhead, after his side had lost his opening four games in charge.
Under his watch, the Bhoys had been beaten by Hearts, Roma and Dundee United, while also losing the Scottish League Cup final to St. Mirren.
But last week, Celtic beat Aberdeen 3-1 at Celtic Park to finally put an end to the losing streak and earn Nancy more time.
On Saturday, Celtic beat Livingston 4-2 in a chaotic game that saw all six goals scored in the opening 45 minutes.
Wilfried Nancy spotted in new encouraging footage
Scottish Premiership leaders Hearts lost 3-2 to Hibernian in the Edinburgh derby on Saturday, allowing Celtic the opportunity to close the gap to just three points in the later game.
But after just three minutes, Nancy’s side were already behind when Cristian Montano scored, and the right-back would net another just five minutes later after Benjamin Nygren had equalised.
| Livingston | Match stats | Celtic |
| 34% | Possession | 66% |
| 13 | Shots | 18 |
| 3 | On target | 7 |
| 0.93 | Expected goals (xG) | 3.76 |
| 11 | Corners | 4 |
Completing an unbelievable opening 10 minutes, Yang Hyun-jun levelled for Celtic once again after a skirmish in the penalty box.
Nygren added his second in the 31st minute with a lovely strike into the top corner, before Arne Engels doubled the visitors’ lead from the penalty spot after Daniel Finlayson was adjudged to have handled the ball.
During each of his first five games in charge of Celtic, Nancy had spent little time on the pitch following the final whistle, preferring to avoid the fans.
But, in footage posted by The Fast Lovin’ Sin-Soaked Heathen on X, the Frenchman could be seen finally joining his players in clapping the Celtic faithful on a lap of honour.
“It was also heartening to see the players and Wilfried warmly embracing yet again, suggesting that rumours of rifts and dressing room discontent are way off the mark,” the Celtic fan wrote.
Nancy still targeting improvement for Celtic
Under Nancy, Celtic have introduced an element of chaos to their game. They created huge numbers of chances, but often leave themselves open at the back.
While it may be great fun to watch, the Frenchman is keen to cut out the defensive lapses.
“I wanted to have a chaotic game and when there is the moment we have to attack quick, we need to score goals,” he said after Saturday’s game.
“If you control the game a bit better we would have been able to spend more time in their half and attack the ball a bit better.
“The two goals we conceded could have been better. After the first one we didn’t fix the mistake. I think we can do better.”
Chaos is all well and good, but Nancy has already seen on several occasions how it can go against you.
Celtic are winning games because they are scoring goals, but should the bad finishing return, the situation could rapidly become perilous once again.