'Nancy exposed to brutal life as Celtic manager as cup final looms'

"Forensic analysis in every waking hour. And for the St Mirren manager, suddenly, hope. A little over a week ago, as Martin O'Neill, the great redeemer, exited the club in a fanfare of gratitude and optimism, Robinson would have to face a team content in its own skin again. What he must see now is something altogether different. He's got to be seeing weakness and a chance. Everybody else can see it."

"Nancy had two ways to go when he took over - he could have done a steering job with O'Neill's team until the January transfer window, when he could start putting his own imprint on things. Or he could dive right in. And dive right in he has done. On the back of losing to Heart of Midlothian on Sunday in his first game in charge, Nancy's side have lost a second game, a 3-0 doing by Roma at a fast-emptying and, at the end, booing Celtic Park."

"It's not so much that they lost to Roma - O'Neill, Brendan Rodgers and Ange Postecoglou could all have lost to the Italians just as easily - but it's the confusion that exists under Nancy now that's intriguing, the speed with which O'Neill's work has seemingly unravelled. The players pressed into ill-fitting roles. The apparent devotion to an ideology of how this team must play regardless of whether the players he has inherited are cut out to play it. The fact that Nancy is now the first Celtic manager in history to lose his first two games. The reality that Thursday was only the second time in history that Celtic conceded three first-half goals at home in Europe. The uneasy truth that Liam Scales' own goal was the earliest concession in a European game at Celtic in more than a decade. These are not the kind of records that Nancy came here to set."

Stephen Robinson studies Celtic ahead of the Premier Sports Cup final, sensing vulnerability after Martin O'Neill's departure. Wilfried Nancy chose to immediately implement his own methods rather than steady the side, and those changes have coincided with back-to-back defeats to Heart of Midlothian and a 3-0 loss to Roma. Confusion has emerged as players are pressed into ill-fitting roles and a rigid ideological approach clashes with inherited personnel. Historic negative records have followed: Nancy is the first Celtic manager to lose his first two games, Celtic conceded three first-half home European goals for only the second time, and an early Liam Scales own goal marked an unusually poor defensive start.

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