Nothing is ever straightforward at Celtic, as the Wilfried Nancy saga drags on into another week…

So, we’re now into December, and Celtic still haven’t announced a new manager to take over from interim manager Martin O’Neill.

Brendan Rodgers resigned his position on the 27th of October.

We were all under the impression that yesterday would be Martin O’Neill’s final game in charge as interim manager.

Even he seemed surprised at the fact that it wasn’t and that he would be in charge for the midweek game against Dundee.

Many of us expected that Wilfried Nancy would be in place this week.

In fact, many people thought he may have been in the stands at Easter Road yesterday to take in the game against Hibs.

But strangely enough, there is no sign of Nancy at Celtic yet.

Now the usual rumours of protracted talks, and compensation for the Columbus Crew are being bandied about.

Nothing is ever straightforward with Celtic, is it?

If we can’t get transfers done without long and drawn out negotiations, then what did we expect when it comes to acquiring a new manager?

This process is totally in keeping with the way things move at a glacial pace at Celtic.

Should we be worried?

Well, I’ll put it this way, do the people running our club give us reason to worry?

I’ll let you deduce the answer to that one.

Because I know what I think.

If everything was rosy in the garden at Celtic, then I guess the seeds of doubt wouldn’t be floating around in people’s heads.

But that’s the thing, you would have to be blind not to notice the turmoil Celtic is in at the moment.

The disconnect between the board and the fanbase is the worst it has been in a long, long time.

It stands to reason that Wilfried Nancy would do his homework on the club he might or might not be signing for, doesn’t it?

And as much as people might not like to hear this, there also a good chance he’s had a conversation with Brendan Rodgers too.

It’s called due diligence.

You’re considering signing for a pretty big club, but you know all is not well at this club.

You’re going to want to know why.

And who better to get the inside track from than the previous manager?

So, after doing your due diligence, it’s only natural that you might have some reservations.

Reservations that you need time to think on.

Because if you ignore them, they could cause serious problems for you further down the line.

If Nancy is a smart man, which he appears to be, he’ll want certain guarantees.

Certain guarantees from the people running Celtic will take time.

So now you start to get a clearer picture of how things could be getting held up.

But the longer this goes on, the more nervous we get as fans.

We start to worry that something like what happened with Eddie Howe might happen.

Bear in mind that Celtic apparently had a verbal agreement with Howe in the run up to what happened in the early stages of the summer of 2021.

We have no such agreement with Wilfried Nancy.

Back in 2021, we were informed that one of the biggest stumbling blocks in the Eddie Howe negotiations was the fact that he wanted to bring in his own backroom team.

Wilfried Nancy also wants to bring in his own backroom team.

But you have to ask the question, is Nancy being told that he will have to work with Gavin Strachan, Mark Fotheringham, Stephen McManus and Shaun Maloney?

Could this be what’s holding this up?

It’s not an unreasonable question to ask.

And it’s not unreasonable because it’s happened before.

What we don’t want is a scenario where Martin O’Neill will be announced as the manager in charge for the Hearts game.

Because if that happens, then throwing Nancy in the following week for the League Cup final is a huge risk.

We either get this sorted this week, or I get the feeling it will drag until after the final.

Either way, this is just Celtic being true to form.

Nothing is ever straightforward when it comes to this club.

And it never will be while this board is in charge of things.

We aspire to be world class in everything we do, do we not?

Well, I couldn’t call this world class.

Could you?