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.”
