{"id":317476,"date":"2025-12-15T16:23:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T16:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/317476\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T16:23:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T16:23:08","slug":"martin-oneill-pleads-with-celtic-fans-to-hold-fire-on-wilfried-nancy-as-he-meets-the-big-hypothetical-head-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/317476\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin O&#8217;Neill pleads with Celtic fans to hold fire on Wilfried Nancy as he meets the big &#8216;hypothetical&#8217; head on"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The former interim boss has pleaded for punters to get behind his successor for the midweek trip to face Dundee Utd at Tannadice<\/p>\n<p>11:21, 15 Dec 2025Updated 14:29, 15 Dec 2025<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_JS390749012.jpg\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Celtic boss Wilfried Nancy<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Martin O&#8217;Neill has pleaded with <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/all-about\/celtic-fc\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Celtic<\/a> fans to hold fire and get behind Wilfried Nancy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The Frenchman <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/sport\/football\/wilfried-nancy-says-winning-celtic-36400970\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">is under fire after losing his first three games in charge of the club<\/a> &#8211; the worst start of any Hoops boss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">But <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/all-about\/martin-oneill\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">O&#8217;Neill<\/a> has called on the supporters to get behind the new man ahead of Wednesday night&#8217;s trip to face Dundee Utd at Tannadice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">A win would see the champions cut the gap to Premiership leaders Hearts to just three points and while confidence is low, O&#8217;Neill wants to see punters rally behind Nancy to give him the best chance of ending his current losing run.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;Just give him a chance please,&#8221; he told talkSPORT. &#8220;Give him a chance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;They&#8217;ve got a big game coming up in a couple of days as well, so just hold fire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;It will be difficult of course. But whenever you start to lose football games, confidence drops and it becomes more difficult to stop a losing streak.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;So it is a very, very big game for them. It&#8217;s a match that maybe some time ago they would have gone into with some sort of trepidation, but not complete and utter fear. But it&#8217;s a difficult one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;Listen, when I had players like Larsson, going to Tannadice was still very difficult.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">O&#8217;Neill was then asked if he would return to Celtic for a second stint this season if <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/all-about\/wilfried-nancy\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Nancy<\/a> doesn&#8217;t last and eventually gave an answer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He said: &#8220;That would be hypothetical. Totally hypothetical. It&#8217;s like asking me is my next birthday 74? Which it would be.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;It has reinvigorated me, there&#8217;s no question about that. When you&#8217;re dealing with young people, it does make you feel much younger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;I suppose deep down really, if the manager of Roma Gasperini, who&#8217;s only about 26 months younger than me &#8211; might be more &#8211; can, then why not? Why not?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Follow Record Sport on <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Record_Sport\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"TwitterLink opens in a new tab.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Twitter<\/a>, <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DailyRecordSport\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"FacebookLink opens in a new tab.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Facebook<\/a> and <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dailyrecord_sport\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"InstagramLink opens in a new tab.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Instagram<\/a> for all of the up-to-the minute breaking news, video and audio on the SPFL, the Scotland national team and beyond.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">You can get all the news you need on our dedicated <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/all-about\/rangers-fc\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"RangersLink opens in a new tab.\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Rangers<\/a> and <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/all-about\/celtic-fc\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"CelticLink opens in a new tab.\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Celtic<\/a> pages, and sign up to our <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/newsletter-preference-centre\/?view=Solus&amp;mailingListId=63d718e7-01d7-475b-8771-1036275c62c8&amp;utm_source=solusarticle\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"newslettersLink opens in a new tab.\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">newsletters<\/a> to make sure you never miss a beat throughout the season. 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Join our Rangers community <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/chat.whatsapp.com\/EgVkLjEJzvoGCjPsITDsXg\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"hereLink opens in a new tab.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">here<\/a> and our Celtic community <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/chat.whatsapp.com\/GtgsiFAaUcWKtoLw98WNeq\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"hereLink opens in a new tab.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Tune in to <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/sport\/football\/football-news\/watch-record-sport-hotline-live-33585614\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Hotline LiveLink opens in a new tab.\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Hotline Live<\/a> every Sunday to Thursday and have your say on the biggest issues in Scottish football and listen to Record Sport&#8217;s newest podcast, <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/GameOnListen\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Game OnLink opens in a new tab.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Game On<\/a>, every Friday for your sporting fix, all in bitesize chunks.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former interim boss has pleaded for punters to get behind his successor for the midweek trip to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2817,13716,218,30905,35685,8058,101,23922,56,54,55,106896],"class_list":["post-317476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-celtic-fc","tag-dundee-united-fc","tag-football","tag-martin-oneill","tag-premier-sports-cup","tag-scottish-premiership","tag-sports","tag-st-mirren-fc","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wilfried-nancy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}