Alistair Johnston makes Wilfried Nancy Celtic pre-season claim | OneFootball

Alistair Johnston has broken his silence on the Wilfried Nancy era – and his dressing-room view makes for fascinating, if painful, reading.

Speaking via the Glasgow Times, Celtic right-back Alistair Johnston has argued that Wilfried Nancy would have succeeded at Celtic given a proper pre-season to implement his ideas. The Canadian full-back, sidelined with a hamstring injury for the entirety of Nancy’s 33-day tenure, knows the Frenchman better than almost anyone in that dressing room – he made 39 appearances under him in a single MLS season at Montreal.

Johnston said: “Would a pre-season probably have helped? I do think so. Whenever you’re trying to do a completely different style of football and introduce some really new ideas, it definitely helps to have friendly matches to really work on things.”

“But that’s also the challenge of working at a club like this – you don’t necessarily get time. Especially when you come in mid-season, you need to hit the ground running, and I think that’s something he was acutely aware of.”

Here’s the thing – Johnston isn’t wrong, and most of us knew it at the time. Walking into Celtic Park in December, mid-season, with a squad built for a completely different system, and asking them to immediately execute a 3-4-3 with new pressing triggers and positional responsibilities? That was always going to be a brutal ask.

Celtic’s Bleak Midwinter

The numbers are damning regardless of circumstance: six defeats from eight games, a 25% win rate – the worst of any of Nancy’s 19 predecessors in the hotseat – and that catastrophic 3-1 Old Firm defeat that sealed his fate. Johnston doesn’t flinch from it either.

He said: “It was a really sticky period. We dropped quite a few points there. It was quite a low in my time at the club. We never had results like that in such a prolonged period. It was difficult.”

Johnston also flagged something that got lost a little in the noise at the time – the language barrier. Nancy’s first language is French, and with Johnston himself injured and unable to act as the on-pitch conduit he’d been at Montreal, key ideas were getting lost in translation before they even reached the training pitch.

“It was just tough being injured and not being able to get out on the grass and help things, and help guys understand exactly what he was trying to look for. Again, French is his first language – there are a couple of things that can get lost in translation a little bit.”

The Bigger Picture

Johnston’s conclusion is generous but grounded: “Look, I think he’s a great manager. I think his football does work. Whatever the case was, it obviously wasn’t the right time. But that’s not to say he can’t go to another European club or wherever and make it work. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out, but I’ve got no doubt in my mind that he’s going to go somewhere else and be a huge success.”

Let’s be honest – the Nancy appointment was always a gamble taken at the worst possible moment, and the club paid the price. Martin O’Neill has since spoken about the scale of the squad rebuild needed this summer, which tells its own story about how much ground was lost in that chaotic winter spell.

Johnston’s comments won’t rewrite history, but they do add important texture to it. Nancy didn’t fail because his football doesn’t work – he failed because mid-season appointments at clubs with Celtic’s expectations leave no margin for error, no runway, and no grace. That’s not an excuse. It’s just the truth.

Onwards, Bhoys. Mon The Hoops.

Declan McGuire