Following Brendan Rodgers’ catastrophic departure in October, Celtic turned to Martin O’Neill as the interim head coach and his return brought an immediate sense of calm and momentum.
Celtic went unbeaten in domestic competitions under him. They won 7 out of 8 matches.
This included performances that put Celtic level on points with league leaders Hearts and pushed them into the Scottish League Cup final.
Behind the scenes however, Celtic’s board was searching for a long-term head coach to take over the squad.
Wilfried Nancy, the then coach of Columbus Crew in MLS, became a leading candidate.
The deal was subject to paperwork, and at one point O’Neill joked about “hiding Nancy’s paperwork” during a friendly moment in the transition.
On 3 December 2025, Celtic finally announced Wilfried Nancy as the club’s next permanent head coach, signing him on a two-and-a-half-year contract.
Now, here is where the things start to take a curve.
Nancy became the first manager in Celtic’s history to lose his first three games in charge against Hearts, Roma, and St Mirren.
The St. Mirren loss four days ago was a high-stake defeat in the Scottish League Cup final.
Following that defeat, the account on X (Twitter) which goes by the name of @wilfriednancy itself, shared a new profile photo update showcasing a Venn diagram.
The graphic shows an arrow with the phrase “what you should focus on” pointing to where the lines intersect between “things that matter’ and ‘”things you can control”.
This provoked anger amongst the Celtic fanbase who couldn’t believe what they were seeing and needless to say, fans of rival clubs thought it was funny.
Cannot believe a Celtic manager has posted this after losing three from three.
— SPFL Mediawatch (@SPFLWatch) December 16, 2025
Exceptional Entertainment. I suspect he won't be in G40 very long. https://t.co/zDug5qPWQN
Nancy had however previously stated that he had cut social media posts.
Speaking prior to the Europa League game against Roma, Nancy stated:
“When I had the opportunity to become a coach, I was assistant coach for seven years, so I worked with many coaches”.
“So I always told myself that when you become a coach, cut everything. So this is what I did”.
“On Twitter I cut everything, regarding my name, regarding the club, regarding what people can say, because they have the right to say something.
“This is part of the job, that’s why we study for that, and after that, I’m not here to comment on everything.
“We can go to the restaurant together and maybe you’re going to say that you like the food, and me I’m going to say I don’t like it.
“So at the end of the day, this is part of the job, and I control what I can control to be good with my players, with my club, with the people that I work with, and to maximise our chance to win games by having good performance.” [The Sun]
However, the account is followed by the official MLS account of Nancy’s both former clubs— Montreal Impact and Columbus Crew.
The account also posted a thank you message to Columbus Crew as Nancy left to take over at Celtic and now with this cryptic post it gained thousands of followers from across Scottish football.
It was created in Canada in 2011 and the username – @wilfriednancy – has never been changed.
Despite being born and brought in France, Nancy has strong connections to Canada. He moved there in 2005, built his coaching career with CF Montréal (winning the Canadian Championship), had a Canadian wife and Canadian-born children in Montreal, and became a Canadian citizen, making him a prominent figure in Canadian soccer despite being French-born.
It looks the now-Celtic manager opened his Twitter account when joined the Montreal Impact Academy in 2011.
No username changes and registered in Canada in 2011.
— SPFL Mediawatch (@SPFLWatch) December 16, 2025
Absolutely a real account or a fake account for a long time, which seems extremely unlikely. pic.twitter.com/9QucFXDN2O
Interestingly though, in another strange set of events, the account was even made private after the cryptic Venn diagram image went viral.
This means that only approved followers can now see the posts, but the content (including the diagram) could still be seen in the profile photo.
Speaking ahead of Celtic’s game against Dundee United last night, which was Nancy’s 4th loss in a row, he also seemed to have confirmed that the account is his indeed his and quite bizarrely admitted that he was “trying to change his WhatsApp profile picture” –
“My wife was not happy and to be honest, believe me or not, the profile was about Columbus”.
“So my X picture was about Columbus, me being in the locker room of Columbus.
“So I just wanted to change what I have on my WhatsApp”.
“Simple as that. So it was not a mistake or something. I don’t want to create a battle so simple as that”.
“I did it because my picture was looking upstairs in the locker room of Columbus so I just wanted to change what I have on my WhatsApp. Simple as that.” [The Scottish Sun]
Rubbing salt on the wounds, Dundee United used the same Venn diagram inspired image to banter the Celtic manager after their 2-1 win at Tannadice Park –
Safe to say the timing of this X (Twitter) account controversy has not come at the right time for Wilfried Nancy.
