{"id":456460,"date":"2025-12-18T22:34:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T22:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/456460\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T22:34:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T22:34:14","slug":"martin-oneill-insider-leaks-celtic-truth-over-wilfried-nancy-decision-as-icon-wasnt-just-an-interim-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/456460\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin O’Neill insider leaks Celtic truth over Wilfried Nancy decision as icon ‘wasn’t just’ an interim boss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fans\u2019 chants demanding the return of the Irishman and for Nancy to be shown the door rang out against Dundee United<\/p>\n

12:31, 18 Dec 2025Updated 20:27, 18 Dec 2025<\/p>\n

Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n

Simon Jordan insists Martin O’Neill<\/a> was not “just an interim manager” during his eight-week return to the club. And he reckons the board must have “really believed” in Wilfried Nancy to move on from the icon.<\/p>\n

Jordan and O\u2019Neill are colleagues on the radio and the former hinted he had the inside track on the iconic Irishman.<\/p>\n

Nancy is facing major pressure after going games without a win after arriving from Columbus Crew as he puts his 3-4-3 football philosophy in place at Parkhead. O’Neill had led to the club to seven wins from eight from Nancy’s arrival, having been appointed on an interim basis following Brendan Rodgers\u2019 sudden departure.<\/p>\n

During the latest defeat to Dundee United at Tannadice, fans sang the name of O’Neill as well as chanting “Nancy get to f***”<\/a>. And Jordan – who spoke with the 73-year-old about his 15 minute handover with Nancy earlier this week – admits he has been left baffled by the boss.<\/p>\n

He told talkSPORT: “Martin O\u2019Neill did not walk on water. He is not a miracle worker. He got a group of players in a sub-standard league with a team that might have sub-standard Celtic players, but are better than the other players so should be able to get outcomes.<\/p>\n

“I think Martin would have won the majority of games, with the exception of maybe Roma. They have gone for a guy who has changed things – which these is nothing wrong with, you want managers to be definite – but really, sensible, grown up managers go \u2018do I have to change things, I want to finesse things, should I do it when I have the bodies in the building to represent how I want to play. I tell you what the fella I spent 15 minutes talking to and probably didn\u2019t really want to gave me a base\u2026\u2019 keep it simple stupid.<\/p>\n

“The players are better than what they are showing. To go on about context, the context is you have lost four games.<\/p>\n

“You wonder what is going on in that dressing room. You don\u2019t go and win seven games out of eight and, bang, off a cliff. That is something that has changed in the environment. No one is disputing that Celtic could be better.”<\/p>\n

\"CelticCeltic manager Wilfried Nancy looks dejected (Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n

Jordan then went on to claim that he had knowledge that O’Neill was not simply appointed on an “interim” basis – and that the “opportunity” to name him permanently was turned down in favour of bringing in the current gaffer from Columbus Crew.<\/p>\n

Pressed on if Nancy should be axed after just four games, the former Crystal Palace owner said: \u201dWell, you can, but there must have been a reason you employed him.<\/p>\n

“I am in the camp that you should have kept Martin for the season, or maybe even longer if Martin was up to the job and felt like he had the vitality and wherewithal to do it full-time.<\/p>\n

“There is always going to be a longer-term picture, so I do understand why they have gone for the future, but you need to be clear what the future looks like. With all due respect to performances being vouched for by Nigel Reo-Cocker in America in the MLS<\/a> that is not the blueprint to manage a powerhouse like Celtic.<\/p>\n

“This is something they must have considered, because my understanding is this wasn\u2019t a done deal. Martin wasn\u2019t just an interim manager.<\/p>\n

“He was in there to hold the fort and they hadn\u2019t made their mind up. So there was still an opportunity to have alighted on Martin, so they must have really believed that Wilfried Nancy was the man to go to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fans\u2019 chants demanding the return of the Irishman and for Nancy to be shown the door rang out…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":456461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[34431,7754,8097,152887,6071,169522,7756,221,62,67,132,68,36218],"class_list":{"0":"post-456460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-brendan-rodgers","9":"tag-celtic-fc","10":"tag-crystal-palace-fc","11":"tag-dundee-united-fc","12":"tag-major-league-soccer","13":"tag-martin-oneill","14":"tag-scottish-premiership","15":"tag-soccer","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-wilfried-nancy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115742958108960237","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}