Celtic 3-1 Aberdeen – Time to get behind Wilfried Nancy and salvage our season

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The Celtic Star

·22 December 2025

Celtic 3-1 Aberdeen – Time to get behind Wilfried Nancy and salvage our season

Celtic beat Aberdeen yesterday in a match which almost became comical at times for the amount of chances that just wouldn’t go in the net for Celtic, although I can assure you I wasn’t laughing at the time…

Kieran Tierney of Celtic celebrates scoring during the Premier League match between Celtic and Aberdeen at Celtic Park on December 21, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

I lost count of the amount of times the ball hit the woodwork, I can’t remember anything like it in all my years watching football. In the end we won 3-1, although the scoreline doesn’t even begin to tell the full story of how the match panned out. It could have ended 8-0 to Celtic. It could also easily have ended 1-1. It really was a strange game.

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Wilfried Nancy has finally got his first win

Most importantly Wilfried Nancy has finally got his first win, whilst ended the chance of setting anymore unwanted records in the process, and I couldn’t be happier for him.

Whatever you think of Nancy’s managerial capabilities, on a personal level it has been hard to watch him struggle on the sideline and in interviews since he arrived in Glasgow. It must be hard to stand on the side of the pitch, just two weeks into the job of your dreams, and hear people chant for you to leave the club (my PC version of what they were actually chanting).

My heart sank on Wednesday when I heard those chants

Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy reacts as he his team score their first goal during the Premier League match between Celtic and Aberdeen at Celtic Park on December 21, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

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Come on folks, surely we are better than that?

I’m not superstitious but after the way the match went on Wednesday I started to think that Nancy was cursed, or at least was the one thing you don’t want to be as a football manager. An unlucky one.

Against Dundee United we should have been out of sight by half time but the ball just didn’t seem to want to go in the net. When I started to see the exact same thing happen in the second half yesterday I really started to worry, and when the Dons equalised I genuinely felt that this was it for Nancy. He could never come back from throwing a certain win away against a poor Aberdeen side who were down to 10 men.

Kieran Tierney and James Forrest celebrate during the Premier League match between Celtic and Aberdeen at Celtic Park on December 21, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Kieran Tierney and James Forrest showed the new Bhoys how it’s done at Celtic

Thankfully, Kieran Tierney popped up near the death and showed the Celtic strikers how it’s done by burying his opportunity as we all collectively took a gasp of air, and Celtic’s season finally got resuscitated just in time.

James Forrest put the nail in the coffin at the end and no one in Celtic Park was more relived than our manager, who finally cracked a smile in what has been a brutal first few weeks for him in Scotland. Let’s just pray that yesterday’s result is that little bit of momentum we have needed to finally get things rolling under the Frenchman.

I understand why Nancy has been getting flak

Look I understand why Nancy has been getting a lot of the flak he has been receiving these last few weeks. Things just haven’t worked out for him but while most have only seen the negatives, I have seen plenty of positives. A lot of people seem to think Nancy has taken a great team and made them terrible. We aren’t a great team, in fact we aren’t even close. We haven’t looked good all season.

We don’t have the players to be a great team at the moment

We looked absolutely devoid of ideas under Rodgers. Boring, one paced, side to side guff was what was served up week after week. Yes, Martin O’Neill came in and got some fantastic results. There is absolutely no doubting that, but were the performances great? Not for me they weren’t. People talk about our wins against theRangers and Feyenoord. Great results all right but against who? Both are struggling badly this season. The reason we haven’t been at our best this season is pretty obvious to me. We don’t have the players to be a great team at the moment.

Just look at our bench today. Genuinely that is one of the worst benches I have seen Celtic produce in a long time. The only time I can remember similar is some of those games we played during the dreaded Covid season when large groups of players were missing due to being quarantined.

Celtic failed to sign quality in the summer

We failed to sign quality in the summer. Rodgers had been banging on about the need to upgrade the squad for two years. On top of being left with a weak squad due to the board and Paul Tisdale’s ineptitude during the transfer window, we then end up losing some of our most important players to injury.

Paul Tisdale. Premier Sports Cup Final. 14 December 2025. St Mirren v Celtic. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

How much better would this Celtic team look with Alastair Johnston in defence instead of Ralston? Jota on the wing instead of Yang or McCowan? Cameron Carter-Vickers at the heart of our defence? We saw just how big a difference having Iheanacho back recently for that short period we had him made.

Johnny Kenny and Shin Yamada are fighting to be Celtic’s striker at moment

Kelechi Iheanacho celebrates scoring the winner for Celtic at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock v Celtic, 14 September 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

He would have been in dreamland over the past two matches the amount of chances that would have fell before him. I’ve been watching the past two games thinking how the hell have things got so bad that Johnny Kenny and Shin Yamada are currently fighting it out to be our number one striker. They would be lucky to get a game for any of the other teams in the Scottish Premiership never mind Celtic.

Celtic board isn’t going to admit their error

Let’s look at is this way. Whether you think Nancy is up to the job or not, it’s almost guaranteed that this board isn’t going to admit their error and sack him anytime in the near future. So as fans we have to back him. But so do the board. He must be given funds to bring in players he thinks will suit his system in January. For a start we are absolutely crying out for a striker who actually scores goals. Let’s start there.

I watched most of the Hearts v theRangers game before our own. Neither are a great team. In any other season we would be miles ahead by now. The reason we aren’t is solely down to the board and our ‘football Doctor’ Tisdale who oversaw a disastrous summer transfer window. This league is still ours for the taking. What we can’t have however is our own fans berating our manager at every turn. He’ll get enough hate from those who want to see us fail without us adding to it.

Let’s get behind the manager and the team

This might not be the best Celtic team, it’s not even close, but it is one that is capable of winning in Scotland this season. Nancy has finally got his win. With a bit of momentum this season is still salvageable. Let’s get behind the manager and the team. They will certainly need our help.

Conall McGinty