The Frenchman has one year remaining on his deal with the MLS club
20:40, 18 Nov 2025Updated 23:14, 18 Nov 2025
Wilfried Nancy of the Columbus Crew
Celtic are continuing to make progress in the pursuit of Wilfried Nancy after kicking off compensation talks with Columbus Crew.
Record Sport revealed last week it would cost up to £2million to bag the Frenchman as boss and the discussions have been ramped up over the last few days.
Nancy held positive talks with Hoops chiefs over the weekend and the push is now on to tie up the deal ahead of the weekend.
Celts released a holding statement on Monday night telling fans interim boss Martin O’Neill and assistant Shaun Maloney would continue to take training ahead of Saturday’s clash with St Mirren while the manager process rumbled on.
But the move is progressing with the MLS outfit determined to land a decent fee for the 2024 coach of the year – and Nancy could even be in the stands for Saints if he’s not in the dugout in time.
Nancy is also looking to bring some of his Columbus backroom staff, including right hand man Kwame Ampadu, coach Yoann Demet, plus first team analyst Max Chalier and fitness chief Jules Gueguen.
The 48-year-old is currently under contract for at least another 12 months but negotiations are well under way after Celts made their move in the wake of Crew’s MLS campaign coming to an end in the play-offs last weekend.
O’Neill and Maloney – along with Gavin Strachan, Mark Fotheringham, Stephen McManus and Stevie Woods – are still taking training this week, with several Celts away on international duty and not due to return until the end of the week.
Speaking to Celtic TV on Monday, O’Neill said: “If there’s not an announcement now in the next few days, then I’m happy to still be here for the weekend game against St Mirren.
“First of all, we want the players coming back from international matches unscathed, which is the most important thing for us just now, now that we’ve got a few injuries to contend with.
Celtic interim manager Martin O’Neill (Image: SNS Group)
“So whatever sort of squad we had for the Kilmarnock game, I wouldn’t mind having roughly the same again, but we can only deal with what we have and what we want to do, and we just want to play as strongly as we possibly can.
“But let’s see what the next couple of days bring.”
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