Expectations that Celtic were about to appoint Wilfried Nancy as their manager have been put on hold.
Three weeks on from announcing that Brendan Rodgers had resigned the club decided to provide fans with an update.
On Friday the Daily Record reported that moves to appoint Nancy were at an advanced stage.
STRAIGHT FROM THE RECORD
It was a very authoritative report from Michael Gannon, the Record’s main man for Celtic content.
Gannon was on all of the pre-season trips to Cork, Lisbon and Como. He also made the doomed Champions League trip to Kairat Almaty. He’s been on the Celtic beat for the best part of a decade.
Follow up articles speculated over transfer targets, the make up of Nancy’s backroom team and whether he would involve any of the current coaching staff.
Celtic being Celtic and cynics being cynics the fat lady certainly hadn’t cleared her throat.
The ‘advanced stage’ to the Record story never quite added up. There was no comment from Columbus Crew about an approach for their contracted manager.
The story hung out over the weekend. Most outlets took the Record story as white smoke but at 5.06pm today Celtic announced:
As Celtic Football Club continues with the process to appoint our next permanent manager, we can confirm that Martin O’Neill and Shaun Maloney will continue to manage first-team matters on an interim basis, until this process is complete. We will update supporters further as soon as possible.
There are more questions than answers from that update.
Friday’s story in the Record wasn’t kite flying.
But clearly whatever talks had been going on they weren’t as advanced as reported.
DERMOT DESMOND
Before a manager is appointed you would expect that a face to face meeting will be held with Dermot Desmond. For the benefit of the applicant as well as the influential non-executive Director.
Either party could have opted out or delayed at that stage.
Nancy is bound to have taken a look at Celtic beyond the image painted by Paul Tisdale.
A look at the squad, injury list and upcoming fixtures would cause concern. The fractured relationship between the fans the the board would also be a worry.
ON OR OFF?
There will be all sorts of speculation over what has happened, whether the move for Nancy has stalled or whether a deal is off.
From Saturday onwards Celtic have a full on fixture card. Ten matches before the end of the year.
The January transfer window is going to be critical, previous January windows have all failed to deliver what has been required.
Key players are likely to be selected for the African Cup of Nations. Daizen Maeda may have a move lined up to go elsewhere.
While all of this spins around O’Neill and Maloney have to prepare for a match against St Mirren. And almost certainly Feyenoord and Hibs.
On Friday Celtic hold their 2025 AGM. Michael Nicholson will find that gags about penalties won’t go down well while the position of manager remains unfilled.
The next update is likely to come from Stephen McGowan of Newsquest/ Herald/ Celtic Way.
