Nancy will take charge of Celtic this week – O’Neill

According to interim Celtic manager Martin O’Neill, Wilfried Nancy will be playing in the Celtic dugout for the Scottish Premiership game against Hearts on Sunday.

The Glasgow club has been in advanced discussions with the Columbus Crew head coach for almost a week and appears to be close to appointing a deal.

Since Brendan Rodgers left as interim manager, O’Neill has won six of his seven games, narrowing Hearts’ position at the top of the Scottish Premiership and guiding the Parkhead outfit to a Premier Sports Cup final spot. He has been in charge for more than a month.

The 73-year-old, who had previously led the organization between 2000 and 2005, had already stated that he anticipated Sunday’s trip to Hibernian, which Celtic won 2-1, to be his last outing at the club.

O’Neill, however, made it clear that he would lead Celtic before Nancy took over the reins for Wednesday’s league game against Dundee.

O’Neill told TalkSport, “He is the man who will be coming in.”

“I believed it was over on Sunday, but there is still some paperwork to be handled. My final game will undoubtedly be on Wednesday.

Nancy’s new club could win the title with a win in his first game as manager if Dundee and Hearts defeated Kilmarnock on Wednesday.

O’Neill said, “It’s a nice one for him [against Hearts], a nice introduction.” Naturally, it will be a challenging game, and I wish him all the success. At least he’s gaining some self-assurance from the side.

O’Neill has lost just once in the Europa League, winning 3-1 at Midtjylland, thanks to his success on the field in the previous five weeks.

However, the former Republic of Ireland manager and his players reacted with a 3-1 victory over Feyenoord last week to claim their first away victory in Europe since 2021.

With three games to go, Celtic are 21st in the 36-team table, facing Roma, Bologna, and Utrecht.

O’Neill said, “We lost to Midtjylland. That was a challenging game because Nottingham Forest had already defeated them a few weeks prior. It was fantastic to win away from home at Feyenoord.

O’Neill says it has given himpause as the interim boss has been asked about whether he wants to stay in charge in the future.

He responded, “I genuinely don’t know.” After Wednesday evening, I’ll have a wee bit of a reflection.

It wasn’t simple, they said. Failure was a big concern, which is always a big one. I’d once boasted that I could handle the position just as badly as many other managers.

I’ve gained a lot of knowledge. I have some excellent young coaches working alongside me, which has helped me greatly in many ways by interacting with young people every day.

The former manager of Leicester City, Aston Villa, and Republic of Ireland, who claims that is entirely up to Nancy, decides whether he wants to work as a consultant for Celtic.

The incoming manager must ultimately decide that, O’Neill said.

He ought to have complete freedom. That’s fine if he wants my opinion on certain things. That is completely unrelated to his lack of knowledge.

When he enters the breach, he says, “It’s very much his team.”

When the full-time whistle blew on Wednesday, TalkSport host Jim White posed the question to O’Neill to end the interview.