The astonishing Scottish Premiership table since Celtic hired Wilfried Nancy | OneFootball

Celtic have parted company with Wilfried Nancy and have replaced the Frenchman with Martin O’Neill until the end of the season.

Nancy took over from O’Neill back in December, but only lasted eight matches before he was shown the door.

The final straw was losing the Old Firm at home against Rangers, a result which leaves Celtic six points adrift of Hearts at the top of the table.

It’s a miracle in itself that Celtic are still second in the table, given the terrible run of results that they’ve endured of late.

Indeed, since hiring Nancy, only Kilmarnock and Livingston have picked up fewer points in the Scottish Premiership.

In total, Celtic only picked up six points in six league matches under Nancy, averaging a miserable one point per game.

The Frenchman also lost the Scottish League Cup final against St Mirren and suffered a heavy defeat to Roma in the Europa League – a competition where a BetMGM sign up bonus can be used by new customers.

In comparison, during O’Neill’s last interim spell in charge of Celtic, they picked up more points than any other club in the Scottish Premiership.

The Republic of Ireland manager won all five of his league games in charge, keeping a clean sheet in four of those matches.

We still think that Nancy could go on to be successful elsewhere, but it’s clear to see that he wasn’t the right man for the Celtic job.

The 48-year-old tried to change too much in a short span of time and didn’t have a squad that suited his desired style of play.

With a six-point gap to make up on Hearts, O’Neill has admitted that it’ll be very difficult to win the title from this point.

“It’ll be very very difficult,” he said upon his return to Celtic Park.

“We’re behind. Rangers have caught up now as well too and so it will be difficult but it is a challenge for us.

“I can’t see [staying longer than necessary] for a start – I genuinely can’t. I don’t know whether I would have the energy and all that type of stuff.

“I’ll just put everything into it now for these next couple of months and the same applies to me if I don’t win football matches I’ll be straight under pressure and that starts here at the weekend.

“I know in this day and age there’s managers, the minute they step into a football club have to win immediately. That’s very, very difficult to do.

“Someone who comes in doesn’t know the players that well. Players have to learn what the manager wants to do. That takes a little bit of time and that’s really unfortunate, but in this day and age it’s instant results.”

To illustrate just how bad things were under Nancy, here is the Scottish Premiership table since he was given the job at the start of December.

1. Rangers – 15 points, +7GD 2. Hibernian – 13 points, +7GD 3. Motherwell – 13 points, +7GD 4. Hearts – 12 points, +4GD 5. Dundee FC – 10 points, 0GD 6. Dundee United – 9 points, 0GD 7. St. Mirren – 7 points, 0GD 8. Aberdeen – 7 points, -2GD 9. Celtic – 6 points, -2GD 10. Falkirk – 6 points, -4GD 11. Kilmarnock – 1 point, -8GD