Biog Page | Managers | Players
“I know what Celtic means to so many people and my No. 1 aim will be simple – to give our fans a strong, exciting, attacking, winning football team they can be so proud of.”
Wilfried Nancy on his unveiling (Dec 2025)
“I want my players to be confident but I want them also to be humble. My job also is to challenge them for the best of the team. [It is a] quality team, quality players but they have to believe a little bit more in themselves. Tactical flexibility – we have players who can play in different positions. For me this is important to have players who I want to play in two positions minimum. We play against a style of play, we don’t play against the name of the team. Roma, the way they play is not the same as Hearts. We know what we have in front of us. We know what we want to do.”
Wilfried Nancy (Dec 2025)
“I don’t consider myself as a boss, I am a leader. The definition of leader is to put a good environment to help and to give the possibility, the people that I work with to express themselves.”
Wilfried Nancy (Dec 2025)
“First of all, for me this is amazing, because as a coach my job is to find solutions, and after that it’s to prioritise. Obviously, I cannot show everything since I came here, but the idea is to prioritise, and also don’t forget that I have a good base already. So my job is not to change everything, my job is to add certain things, certain nuances, offensively and defensively. But this is for me the only way to be able to be coherent. We are in the big picture, we are in where we are now, so I’m pretty pleased.”
Wilfried Nancy (Dec 2025)
Wilfried on his evolution ‘I am different in terms of the previous coach, we are all different. Players have to adjust regarding that. I also have to adjust regarding the players & also change, not a lot of change, but a few changes because we are all different’
Wilfried Nancy (Dec 2025)
“Nancy may just be wrong for Celtic. But that’s on them. They knew they were getting a romantic, and if they didn’t, then they’re inept. Celtic doesn’t care how you win, or about any realities/challenges that may exist. You figure it out, or they’ll get someone who will.”
Alexei Lalas (Dec 2025)
“I see people calling for him to leave the place. As a coach myself, I think it’s too early to say that. Let him work and let him cook and judge him maybe at the end of the season.”
Thierry Henry on Nancy (Dec 2025)
“Unsurprisingly, pictures of Martin O’Neill’s goodbye to the Celtic support last month, following the narrow win against Dundee, are doing the rounds. The feel-good factor had returned and a split support were united. I was at Wilfried Nancy’s long-awaited first win against Aberdeen 17 days into his tenure, and the drop in mood was monumental. There were no big celebrations, no sigh of relief from the manager or any outburst of emotion. He was straight up the tunnel, too. In the post-match interview, he was relatively flat. No different to pre-match when he was under enormous pressure. Many have said, and questioned, if the Frenchman ever ‘got’ what it’s like being a boss in Glasgow’s fishbowl. I think we now have the answer…”
Amy Canavan (BBC reporter)
“Need to chime in here because everyone seems to be missing the point. These are very good coaches. They just made really poor decisions to take these jobs in the middle of the season with no prep, no preseason, no ability to change the roster, etc. Getting immediate results with a new team requires a unique skill set that very few coaches possess.”
Lancy Donovan (Feb 2026)
Wilfried Nancy lasted 8 matches at Celtic. “Eric Ramsay lasted 9 matches at West Brom. If you wonder why most USMNT fans usually don’t want a manager from MLS hired, this is why. “The quality of players in MLS has improved a lot recently, the same now has to happen for managers.”
US journalist Tom Bogert (Feb 2026)
Nancy’s 33-day Celtic tenure in quotes
BBC
Nancy on his appointment:
“I know the history, I know the values of Celtic and I know what is expected of me on this journey. I know what Celtic means to so many people and my number one aim will be simple – to give our fans a strong, exciting, attacking, winning football team they can be so proud of.”
Chief executive Michael Nicholson:
“We have been aware of Wilfried and his quality of work for some time – he was our number one candidate when we began the process of appointing a new manager.”
Major shareholder Dermot Desmond:
“He is a man who absolutely understands the demands at Celtic. Everyone at the club will unite strongly behind Wilfried as we move forward and we will ensure we will give him our unswerving support as we strive to achieve our objectives.
Nancy on his style of play:
“We want to take care of the ball. The ball is the only tool in our life, without talking, that we can connect people. So can we use the ball to create emotions? Can we use the ball to score goals? Can we use the ball to have messages between us?”
Nancy on losing to Hearts in his first match in charge:
“Listen, I’m not about losing or winning. I’m about having a good performance. I want to win but for me it’s about individually what we can do better. The most important thing for me is if we give everything as a player individually.”
Nancy after becoming the first Celtic manager to lose his opening two games:
“I expected it. Come on guys, I just came one week ago. A few players played six games in a row, we have injured players, we have big games coming.”
Nancy, after three opening defeats, on whether he should have waited to change the team’s formation:
“It’s totally normal that people criticise me or say certain things regarding the system or the way I play because I don’t win. But I’m going beyond winning. It’s about character, it’s about personality, it’s about coherence.”
Nancy when asked if he had underestimated Scottish football after losing his fourth match, against Dundee United:
“No, I know Scottish football. I know the way it is. I come from France. I come from Europe. I was close when I was a player to sign with Carlisle.”
Nancy after two late goals against 10-man Aberdeen earned his first win:
“I don’t believe in luck but since I’ve been here I haven’t had luck.”
Nancy after defeat by Motherwell:
“I knew that this could be a bit difficult because of the way they play and where we are at this moment.”
Nancy before the visit of Rangers:
“I know that I don’t have time, because this is the way it is in my job. So, yes, I want to ask you, give me time, and you see my team.”
Nancy after 3-1 derby defeat in his final game:
“The level that we had at certain moments was really, really, really high. We are really close to things turning around. But yeah, for the moment, details, details, details.”