Celtic 1-2 Hearts – If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, Wilfried

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·08 de dezembro de 2025

Celtic 1-2 Hearts – If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, Wilfried

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. When it was in desperate need of some surgery Martin O’Neill put the pieces it all back together again then Wilfried Nancy arrived and after just one training session with the players imposed his style and his formation with some in match coaching thrown in to boot…

Callum McGregor and new Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy are seen during the Premier League match between Celtic and Heart of Midlothian at Celtic Park on December 07, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Six from six for Derek McInnes against Celtic

Derek McInnes has now beaten Celtic home and away in the two Premiership matches this season. That tells its own story but dig a little deeper and there’s a strong argument that Del Boy was just the right manager in the right place on both occasions.

Vídeos OneFootball

Ahead of the game at Tynecastle The Celtic Star as do ahead of every match published a predicted team. We pointed out that Hearts away is no place for rookies and had Anthony Ralston and Auston Trusty in our side. Brendan Rodgers though, perhaps closer to the end of his tether than we all realised, opted to ‘make a point’ and in doing so gifted three to Hearts.

The scoreboard at Tynecastle just before the final whistle. Hearts v Celtic, 26 October 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

He started Colby Donovan and Dane Murray – who had scored the opener for Hearts – but even then Celtic equalised and had Benjamin Nygren not show-boated at point blank range we’d have gone in ahead. At the break Brendan could easily have replaced Murray with Trusty but opted to continue with his point scoring agenda. Around 30 hours later he’s no long be Celtic manager and Hearts were eight points clear.

Shaun Maloney and Martin O’Neill at Celtic Park on October 28, 2025 (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

In comes Martin O’Neill, every single player was assessed. Every single domestic game was won and the Hearts lead had gone. Wilfried Nancy was brought in and ripped that wonderful ‘welcome to Celtic’ script up in our faces. Celtic were better than Hearts yesterday in every way but the dugout, and the most comfortable seats in the main stand.

Lucky Del got Celtic at the right time once again with a manager with a blue and red tactics board bemusing experienced professionals like Callum McGregor and Kieran Tierney with his in match coaching sessions.

Continues on the next page…

Kieran Tierney and Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy are seen during the Premier League match between Celtic and Heart of Midlothian at Celtic Park on December 07, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Risky decision backfires in Nancy

Celtic should have waited until after the cup final next Sunday to make the change. It would have been fairer on everyone – the players, the interim coaching staff and most importantly Wilfried Nancy.

Nancy could and should have listened to those – like The Celtic Star in our predicted team – who reckoned that the sensible thing to do in the circumstances would be to go with the same team that started on Wednesday night, with the same system and formation and take it from there, with his changes being rehearsed on the training pitches at Lennoxtown before being showcased at Celtic Park.

Nancy was all guts and glory and if Daizen had scored…

But Nancy was all guts and glory and if Daizen had scored from his two brilliant chances then maybe his high risk gamble would have worked and we’d be talking about the genius in the Celtic dugout.

Martin O’Neill assessed the players he had to work with and despite talking up Nygren as the fourth best thing to come out of Sweden in his farewell speech on Wednesday night, had deemed the summer signing an worthy of just a place on the bench and useful as a late substitute, as was shown in Rotterdam.

Sebastian Tounekti of Celtic is seen during the Premier League match between Celtic and Falkirk at Celtic Park on October 29, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

On Sebastian Tounekti he ended up under O’Neill dropping into the unused substitute bracket and results don’t like. His contribution always looks much better than it actually is, with the likes o Sandman making comparisons with Mikey Johnston and his time at Celtic.

The Celtic Board decided WHEN Wilfried Nancy would take over from Martin O’Neill

The Celtic Board decided WHEN Wilfried Nancy would take over from Martin O’Neill. He decided to ditch the playing style to go three at the back and to make the changes to the team that he saw fit. Celtic lost the game and now have Roma in the Europa League on Thursday evening and St Mirren in the Premier Sports Cup final at the weekend.

Of the three games, ahead of yesterday the one I was most worried about with the final. St Mirren won on Saturday and now have eight days to prepare for Hampden. They were impressive in their semi-final so can play well at the National stadium and Celtic – with a new manager coming in – had two tough matches against Hearts and Roma to play.

Roma celebrations at Ibrox. theRangers v Roma. Europa League, 6 November 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

Roma would have been favourites anyway for Thursday night and it is going to take a huge effort from Celtic to take anything from the game. Then, win lose or draw the recovery time is short ahead of Hampden.

A steady as she goes approach under Martin O’Neill then a hand-over this time next week would have been the best option

A steady as she goes approach under Martin O’Neill then a hand-over this time next week would have been the best option but we are where we are and now Nancy needs to get his system right as Roma look on and unlike Derek McInnes they will come to Celtic Park knowing how Celtic are going to play. They have already won in Glasgow in this campaign after beating theRangers at Ibrox, they will strongly fancy their chances after scouting Celtic’s match against Hearts.

Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy reacts during the Premier League match between Celtic and Heart of Midlothian at Celtic Park on December 07, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Next up is Sandman’s Definitive Ratings…

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