Wilfried Nancy claims cup victory would ‘validate what Celtic are doing’

Wilfried Nancy claims players and fans are the most important figures in Celtic’s Premier Sports Cup final against St Mirren but admits victory on Sunday would validate his fledgling project.

The Frenchman goes into the game at Hampden Park after a fraught first week in charge where he became the first Hoops manager to lose his opening two matches when Italian giants Roma won 3-0 at Parkhead in the Europa League on Thursday night.

Nancy began his tenure with a 2-1 home defeat to leaders Hearts in the William Hill Premiership last weekend and a more intense spotlight will be on the former Columbus Crew boss this weekend.

Asked how important the final was for him in terms of bringing the fans on board the Nancy bandwagon, he said: “For me, no. For my players, yes, and for the fans, yes, because like I said, you start to know me now.

“Yes, I would like to win the trophy.

“I’m pretty sure that if we don’t win it, it’s going to be difficult because when we lose, it is painful.

“But I am optimistic as a person, so hopefully we’re going to do it, and also it’s going to validate what we are doing.

“But I don’t want to think about if not, because I want to stay positive, and this is the way I think.

“And, again, I’m going have many other times to do my stuff and to convince the fans that I am the right guy.

“To be honest, it is not difficult to prepare for the game. It’s a final, so in terms of motivation and stimulation it’s going to be there, no doubt.

“So we’re going mix everything, put in a team with fresh players to go and win this cup.

“It doesn’t change. A final is final.

“Obviously, the fact that we didn’t win the last two games, mentally, it could be that we have a bit of a uncertainty, I would say.

“But to be honest, having had a good discussion with the players, we know what we did well, we know what we need to improve and everything is clear, and they are really focused on this game.”

Nancy believes valuable lessons were learned against Roma where the defeat kept Celtic 24th in the league phase with seven points from six of eight fixtures completed.

He said: “The opposition was really good. Despite the fact that we lost, this was really good for us to play against a team like this, because this is the standard that we want, in terms of the intensity of the runs, but also the aggression.

“Obviously we had difficult moments, but we also had good moments, and for me, this is really important because I believe totally in my players and what they can do.

“And so the idea now is to find resources to bounce back.

“So now we move forward, we have a game, as you know, in two days, and this is the most important thing.”