Celtic’s French head coach Wilfried Nancy gestures from the touchline through the UEFA Europa League league stage soccer match between Celtic and Roma at Celtic Park in Glasgow final Thursday.
AFP through Getty Pictures
To place it flippantly, issues haven’t gone properly in Wilfried Nancy’s begin to life because the Celtic FC supervisor.
The normal Scottish energy have misplaced Nancy’s first three matches in cost, marking the primary three-game slide of any type for the Glasgow membership since 2020. And after Nancy was already controversial appointment earlier than taking on for interim boss Martin O’Neill, there’s chatter he may face an imminent exit if issues don’t enhance rapidly.
Nancy made the transfer after 5 largely profitable MLS seasons, the primary two with CF Montreal adopted by three with the Columbus Crew, the place he gained the 2023 MLS Cup and 2024 Leagues Cup, and reached the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup last. And though Nancy isn’t North American-born, the Frenchman’s Scottish stumbles have some questioning the standard of MLS teaching of their entirety.
The concept no MLS managers can achieve Europe is absurd and simple to refute primarily based on an inventory of those that have come to MLS already with European credentials and located the league challeng. Amongst them: Dean Smith, Owen Coyle, Dome Torrent, amongst others.
That stated, it will be dishonest to say that Nancy’s MLS expertise left him well-prepared for the challenges particular to his first European submit. And that’s as a result of MLS rewards totally different managerial traits extra handsomely than a few of Europe’s pressure-cooker jobs.
The Huge Image Dominates
Firstly, the league’s format – during which its most prestigious honor, MLS Cup, is decided by a postseason match with forgiving qualification requirements – rewards managers who skew towards big-picture pondering and a capability to develop groups towards an end-of-season peak. And when it doesn’t work out, the urgency to repair the state of affairs rapidly is seen as secondary to getting the following rent proper in the long run.
Of the 5 golf equipment that fired their managers this season, solely D.C. United put in a everlasting substitute comparatively rapidly. A sixth – Atlanta United – allowed one other former Celtic boss Ronny Deila to educate out the string with the 5 Stripes figuring out the playoffs had been already past attain for a number of weeks, solely making his departure official after the ultimate matchday.
That doesn’t make the format explicitly unhealthy. In actual fact, Minnesota United supervisor Eric Ramsay, who got here to MLS with expertise as an assistant for Manchester United and the Wales nationwide group, stated he thought that the emphasis on larger image pondering was useful for his personal managerial growth.
However it might probably probably make those that are closely course of and system oriented – qualities that clearly outline Nancy – ill-equipped to take care of the situation he inherited at Celtic, the place the expectation is for the group to rapidly return to the highest of the SPL desk, whatever the ways or aesthetics used to get there.
No Media Savvy Required
The opposite main distinction is only some golf equipment (Atlanta, each Los Angeles groups, Portland, Seattle, Toronto) exist within the sort of media atmosphere the place the opinions of closely invested followers can simply sway a membership’s route.
Whereas MLS common attendances are sturdy, the vast majority of followers work together with golf equipment on a extra informal foundation. Most managers can dwell a comparatively nameless life off the sector, and once they do get crucial questions from reporters, it’s typically not a mirrored image of the suggestions they get from followers locally.
The result’s managers who solely have coached in MLS may be defensive to crucial questions with out compounding their issues. You noticed this a bit in 2024 with Nancy’s rationalization of his choice to bench potent attacker Cucho Hernandez. You see it in different MLS-only managers each younger and outdated, and even from the league’s most adorned head coach, Bruce Enviornment.
Against this, the Gerardo Martinos and Dome Torrents of the world, who got here to MLS with much more numerous experiences, do a much better job of absorbing crucial questions by de-escalating the state of affairs quite than sparring with reporters. As a result of of their different teaching experiences exterior MLS, doing the latter would’ve solely heightened the strain on their group.
Nancy’s post-game remarks after Sunday’s 3-1 defeat to St. Mirren within the Scottish League Cup last don’t recommend somebody who understands de-escalation is a part of his job now. Even when Nancy privately stays extra targeted on the long-term course of of putting in his philosophy, he can’t take that tack publicly with out huge damaging penalties. However within the scantly coated MLS, that by no means precipitated a lot bother.
Hiring The Flawed MLS Managers?
Extra broadly, maybe the MLS managers with the most effective potential European adaptability won’t those who get probably the most consideration.
Orlando’s Oscar Pareja has gained greater than he’s misplaced at three totally different MLS golf equipment whereas additionally displaying a number of tactical flexibility, and but he’s hardly ever talked about as an elite coach partly due to repeated postseason failures. Houston’s Ben Olsen has additionally proven tactical versatility and a capability to get golf equipment to punch above their roster high quality, a trait that may very well be extra helpful within the backside half of elite European divisions than in MLS the place relegation doesn’t exist. Gary Smith’s pragmatism finally wore out its welcome at Nashville SC, however it will most likely be embraced at a membership like Celtic – not less than within the brief time period – if it got here with outcomes.
And in Nancy’s protection, his conduct and demeanor and Celtic is strictly what shut watchers of MLS have at all times recognized and sometimes admired. That they match so poorly with the second Celtic finds itself in is as a lot of a mirrored image on the hiring course of as on Nancy’s long-term viability as a supervisor in any specific league.
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