Wilfried Nancy Media Conference ahead of Celtic trip to Tannadice

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The Celtic Star

·16 de dezembro de 2025

Wilfried Nancy Media Conference ahead of Celtic trip to Tannadice

The show must go on and Wilfried Nancy faced the mainstream media this afternoon after Johnny Kenny had his turn in the media room at Lennoxtown…

Wilfried Nancy during the Premier Sports Cup Final match between St Mirren and Celtic at Hampden Park on December 14, 2025. (Photo by Vagelis Georgariou, The Celtic Star)

The Celtic manager spent most of his conference picking over the bones of the three defeats in a week to Hearts, Roma and St Mirren in the Premier Sports Cup Final at the weekend. Here’s everything that the new Celtic manager had to say, with a wee reminder that the club has banned Celtic fan media…

Wilfried Nancy during the Premier Sports Cup Final match between St Mirren and Celtic at Hampden Park on December 14, 2025. (Photo by Vagelis Georgariou, The Celtic Star)

Vídeos OneFootball

Q: As you can imagine, there’s been a lot of noise since the Scottish League Cup final on Sunday. You’ve had fans, pundits, the media already. You’ve only been here two weeks, and some are questioning your position already. Is that a bit of a surprise for you?

Wilfried Nancy: “No, because this is my job. This is a normal reaction. Don’t forget that I come from Europe, so I know the way it works. To be fair, also in MLS it’s the same. Not with the same intensity, obviously, but I’ve been a player also, so no problem with that. They can say what they want and I understand that. After that, do I accept or not, it’s not the topic. The topic is to be good with my players, to be good on the practice and to be good also during the game to win games.”

Q: How confident are you that you can turn it around and prove early doubters wrong?

Wilfried Nancy: “I don’t have to prove anything for anybody. Simple as that. I have to just be coherent with my team and to do my job as best as I can. After that, I think things will turn, not on my side, but it’s going to be more positive. For the moment, it’s been 10 days that I’m here. Like I said, I knew before I came here that it could be difficult, regarding the situation, regarding the fact that this is the first time for everyone to have a coach who comes in the middle of the season like this. I knew that it could be a lot of adversity, but again, like I said, I’m really happy to be here. I do my job as best as I can and after that, things will go in a more positive way.”

Wilfried Nancy, Manager of Celtic, looks on during a Celtic FC Training Session at Lennoxtown Training Centre on December 10, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Q: What sort of response did you get from the players in training this morning? How confident are you that they’re fully bought in and fully invested?

Wilfried Nancy: “Since the beginning, again, for me, the most important thing is to get this connection with the players. To let them know why I do what I do, regarding the way I want to play, the way I want to defend, the way I want to compete. Every day, I see that there is an improvement. It’s true that for you, you cannot see it because you are not with me. But for me, why I’m really confident is because I can see every day something really interesting and many things really interesting. This is a step-by-step. We’re going to go towards what I would like to do, yes.”

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Wilfried Nancy, Manager of Celtic, looks on during a Celtic FC Training Session at Lennoxtown Training Centre on December 10, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Q: You said that you knew there could be adversity when you came in. Did you envisage that it could be this tough?

Wilfried Nancy: “Yes, because I am a pragmatic guy. My background has been like that in terms of facing adversity. Also, I’ve learned to be confident but also humble. That’s why I knew that this possibility could happen. Again, I’m not the first guy. It happens to many coaches and so on, and also the best coach. This is part of the job. That’s why we study for that. That’s why I try to detach myself from that. Yes, that’s it.”

Celtic players at Hampden. Premier Sports Cup Final. 14 December 2025. St Mirren v Celtic. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Q: You talked after the game on Sunday about some self-doubt that your players have. Have you spoken to them about that and what needs to change to give them less self-doubt?

Wilfried Nancy: “Self-doubt for me is normal as a human being when you want to succeed. If you don’t have self-doubt, it’s because you are not true to yourself. So, after that, the idea is to compete with the self-doubt. For me, this is the message that I had with them because I know that they can do really well. The first half was really interesting. I think that we should have scored more goals. After that, the second half was not bad, but we didn’t execute the same way we did in the first half because of us. I think that we could have done something better. At the same time, I understand them. New coach, new way of doing things, new staff. Not a lot of time. But again, I’m really, really positive because they understand the situation. Obviously, we’re not happy to lose games. But again, the most important thing is to work every day and to be better.”

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

Q: You said that you don’t have anything to prove to anybody. Some might suggest after three straight defeats, you do have stuff to prove. Why do you feel you don’t have anything to prove?

Wilfried Nancy: “Understand me well. As a coach, your job is to win games. So, I know that. So, myself already, the pressure that I put on myself to help my players to be good, nobody else can put more pressure on me. Now, the fans, the people, you guys, media, I don’t have results. So, this is normal that you’re going to doubt on me. But this, I can’t do anything because I try to do my best and after that, it’s about time.

“So, what I say, I don’t have to prove anything to anybody is because the only thing that I have to prove is to be good with my players on the pitch, to help them to have good performance and to win games. This is the most important. And after that, if we’re able to do that, naturally, the doubt that people have on me, it’s going to be different. But this, I cannot do anything with that. And obviously, I will not tell you that I’m happy for that. I am a human being. So, obviously, I would like that everything goes well. I would like that everybody likes me. I would like that.

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

“But this, I cannot control it. So, the most important, like I told my players, yes, we want to win games, but give your best. And by giving your best, you’re going to be able to maybe to maximise your chance to win. This is something that applies for me too. So, that’s why. I understand your question. I’m not saying that I don’t care what people say. I’m saying that I need to be good with myself first and to be coherent with my players. And after that, we’ll see.”

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Q: Do you shield yourself from what people say on the outside?

Wilfried Nancy: “Yes, because again, this is part of the job. Understand me well. I’m not saying that I am, I have, how can I say that in English? I have, you know, protection. That I’m invincible. No, I am a human being. We all have emotions. But I decided to go this way to protect myself. Simple as that. Because like I said in the beginning, everybody can talk in our job. And I respect that because this is your job to criticise me and sometimes to do good things. And I know that. So, that’s why for me, I don’t like to waste time on that. The only thing that I know is that I receive a lot of messages from my family to ask me if I’m okay. So, it means that maybe I get killed, but it’s okay.”

Auston Trusty and Callum McGregor look on.. Premier Sports Cup Final. 14 December 2025. St Mirren v Celtic. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Q: That must be helpful for you that you get support from your family?

Wilfried Nancy: “Yeah, but again, I told my family that it’s going to happen. Because when you become a coach, and again, I’m not inventing stuff. We have good coaches, best coaches in the world who have been also criticised because this is part of the job. So again, I’m not saying that I am invincible. I’m saying that I decided to focus on what I can control. And what I can control is what I do every day on the pitch with my players to get better with my players.”

Q: Have you received a similar support from people above you here at the club, like the chairman, the chief executive, and so on?

Wilfried Nancy: “I am grateful. I’m going to stay polite, but I’m very grateful with the people that I work with. I cannot say that they know why I am here. They protect me. They know what I want to do for the club. They know where we are at this moment. And we knew this moment could happen. But they know this is the most important, where do we want to go? So after that, there is bombs. Obviously, like I said, I would have preferred the opposite. Because trust me, when we do this job, when we lose, this is so difficult, so painful. But this is part of the job. But the club, the people within the club, the board, and everyone has been spot on.”

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

Q: You say there’s a connection between yourself and the players. When will we see the fruits of that labour on the pitch? When do you think we’ll see your style of football that you’re trying to implement, working and getting results?

Wilfried Nancy: “I think that if you’re honest, you saw already certain things. I think so. Because I think that we had a good first half against Hearts. We had a good second half against Roma. We had a good first half against St Mirren. But it was not enough. Now, this is only the beginning. This is not enough regarding what we want to do and what I want to do in terms of the big picture. But like I told you, every day I see improvement. I never did a session saying that we struggle at this moment. Step by step, we put everything to connect and to have better performance, consistent performance, I would say.”

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

Q: There’s a lot of criticism of the fact that you immediately introduced your formation, your style of play straight away. Do you stand by that decision? Do you now just try to accelerate the process of the players learning that? Or do you think, reflect, maybe you step back a wee bit from that?

Wilfried Nancy: “No, I’m here not to please myself. I’m here to find a way to help my players to play together offensively and defensively. So, after that, this is totally normal that people criticise me or tell certain things regarding the system or the way I play because I don’t win for the moment. But like I said, I’m going beyond winning. And when I’m going to win, I’m going to go beyond winning. Because for me, it’s about character. It’s about personality. It’s about coherence. It’s about also the way you want to play offensively and defensively.

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

“And there is nothing about the system. This is about the desire to compete every time. And after that, fans or people, again, for sure, I want to have all the fans on board with me. But this, I cannot control that. The only thing that I can control is what I do on the pitch. I know. And I’m asking a lot of questions to see what I can do better. But again, it’s a bit difficult to say that because for the moment, I haven’t won. But when we’re going to win, it’s going to be the same. It will not change for me because my job is to make the team better when we win and also when we lose.”

Q: When you say go beyond winning, what do you mean by that?

Wilfried Nancy: “Beyond winning is, like I said, we all want to win games. OK, we all want to win games. And I want to win games. Yes, I would like for the players to win games just to validate what we do. What do you have to do to win? And for the moment, we haven’t won, so it means that we have certain things that we have to do better. But the way we do it, we are on the good step to maximise our chance to win. So that’s why I’m talking about beyond winning, because the winning part, it’s here. We have to win. We know that.

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

“Do you understand what I’m saying? So now, is it possible to go beyond winning? What do we do to win? Like I said, in the second half, I think that we could have played with more personality. I think that maybe we could have just did certain things. So the how is important. And with the how, in a better way, the consequence is the win, if we can. So that’s why for me, I want to go beyond winning. So what does it take to win? Do you understand what I mean? This is my explanation for that.”

Q: The games continue. You’re given Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday. There’s very little time on the training pitch. How do you accelerate that process of the players totally understanding?

Wilfried Nancy: “It’s so difficult because again, we play the final and yes, we lost the final and so sad for that, so disappointed for that. But at the same time, they deserve to play the final. So it means that we are two games behind everyone. And I would have preferred to have maybe more time. Not maybe. I would have preferred to have more time to have a normal week to train because when I talk to the players, I have to do only videos. But as you know, there is people that are visual. They have to see. There are people that are auditory. They have to listen. But there are people that we have to move them on the pitch. And for a moment, I don’t have the time for that. It’s a fact.

Wilfried Nancy with Are Engels. Premier Sports Cup Final. 14 December 2025. St Mirren v Celtic. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

“And again, this is not an excuse because I knew that before. But my point is, it’s a fact. And as a coach, we need time. But at the same time, we know that we don’t have time. So that’s why for me, it’s new. But I know what to do. And I can tell you that every day there is an improvement. You are not able to see it because you are not with us. But now, I cannot talk too much because results are important. And for a moment, I have nothing. But I know that it will come.”

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Q: You mentioned that you would have preferred a little bit more time to try and get your ideas across and your new style of play with the players? With the benefit of hindsight, given how the first three games have gone, is there any part of you that’s got a little bit of regret about taking the job?

Wilfried Nancy: “No. No. Understand me well. When I said more time, because he asked me a clear question regarding we play every three days. So I’m talking about this.”

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

Q: But I mean, if you were to delay coming here, it might have been a better chance?

Wilfried Nancy: “Life is about moments. And it was the moment to come. So I decided to come because everybody wanted me to come. And me also, I wanted to come here. So that’s why now it’s easy to talk about if I would have done something different. If I did it at this moment, it’s because it was the best way to do it. So I don’t think about this. And I’m happy to be here. And again, you’re going to think that I’m crazy. But I’m embracing this adversity because I know that I’m getting better. And again, I would have preferred to avoid it. But life is like that. And I knew that this possibility could come. So again, be on the pitch. Be good. Be current. Be what you need to do to help the team to win. Be better. And so on. And after that, we’ll see.”

Callum McGregor with Wilfried Nancy. Premier Sports Cup Final. St Mirren v Celtic. Hampden Park, Sunday 14 December 2025. Photo AJ (The Celtic Star)

Q: How comfortable do you think the players are in terms of trying to play the style of football that you want them to, both on the training pitch and then taking it to a match?

Wilfried Nancy: “First of all, this is not rocket science, what I’m saying in terms of football. No, I am a coach with just ideas. And they did it before. I’m just asking my players to play with a few nuances. But I don’t try to invent football, just to be clear. The way we defend, we defend. This is the same principle. This is the same concept. Now, the back five that I play with. So when a team plays with a back four, so when the opposite team plays with a front five, it’s a 5v4, correct? Who do you think will come back? Who will come back to create a 5v5? The winger.

Callum McGregor with Wilfried Nancy. Premier Sports Cup Final. St Mirren v Celtic. Hampden Park, Sunday 14 December 2025. Photo AJ (The Celtic Star)

“So me, I have already a winger in this position. And the idea is when the ball is up, you have to jump for the ball. So we play with a back four. This is not a back five. So the system is useless to talk about this. This is useless. Because again, the idea is when we play with a back four and the opposition play with six players between the line, most of the time players have to come back to create a 6v6. Okay? Me, I don’t ask my players to come back. I ask them to attack. Because they are already in position. So that’s why for me, now it’s about profile. It’s about trying to speed up the process a bit to know the player a little bit better. I know the player, but now the context, how to cope with pressure.

“Because again, I like to be here because I told them it’s unbelievable to play for this club and in front of this crowd. Why? Because when we connect three, four, five passes and we attack the box, they are so happy. And this is my football. And when we lose the ball, and we try to win the ball back and we make tackles, they do the same. And this is my football too.

Premier Sports Cup. St Mirren v Celtic. Hampden Park, Sunday 14 December 2025. Photo AJ (The Celtic Star)

“So now is when things don’t go the way we want, is it possible to keep going? And this is a little gap that I try to convince my player to face this adversity. Because I believe with the standard of this club, we need this kind of player to play with personality. And this is not easy to be a player. This is not easy to play at home because it can be really good. But when things don’t go the way we want, you have to be, I’m going to stay polite, but really strong to cope with that.

“So my job is to help them to be good on that. They know how to play football. This is just to change certain things, but I can see every day good stuff. So that’s why I am really eager to see what next, the game coming and the next game coming and so on and so on and so on, to be able to reverse this kind of situation. Because I know that they want to do well, but now we need to be more consistent.”

Kelechi Iheanacho is injured during the Premier Sports Cup Final match between St Mirren and Celtic at Hampden Park on December 14, 2025. (Photo by Vagelis Georgariou, The Celtic Star)

Q: Just injury-wise, is Kelechi going to be out for a while? How’s Anthony Ralston?

Wilfried Nancy: “No, Ralston is OK. But Kelechi is going to be out. I don’t know the timeline at the moment, but he won’t be available for tomorrow.”

Watch Wilfried Nancy’s Media Conference ahead of Wednesday night’s Dundee United v Celtic Scottish Premiership match at Tannadice…

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