How much did the Wilfried Nancy experiment set Celtic back? I guess we’ll find out tomorrow…

Since the 5th of January and Wilfried Nancy’s sacking at Celtic, many of us have tried to put what was a nightmare period for the club behind us.

Looking back on it now, it seems like it was all just a bad dream.

But that’s the problem – it wasn’t – and today we are still dealing with the fallout from it.

There is still a six point gap between us and Hearts at the top of the Scottish Premiership.

The fact that nobody at Celtic has been held accountable for the whole shambolic Wilfried Nancy interregnum defies belief.

In addition to that, the fact that we have not spent a single penny in the transfer window is also mind bending.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the board decided that if the fans aren’t going to spend another penny, then neither are they.

Petty spiteful behaviour from the Celtic board has been a constant throughout this time of struggle at the club.

If that was their mindset, then its in tandem with the way their mindset has been all along.

Tomorrow – at Tynecastle – we have the opportunity to repair some of the damage caused by Wilfried Nancy.

Ironically, in his first game in charge against Hearts, he then had the chance to go top of the Scottish Premiership.

He chose to squander that chance by attempting to reinvent the wheel at Celtic over two training sessions.

And then stubbornly decided that it was the way forward thereafter.

That, ultimately, cost him the career opportunity of his lifetime.

I’m sure he’ll return to Sackerball USA, where his talents will be better put to use in a much more forgiving environment than the Scottish Premiership.

However, I would wager that its unlikely he’ll ever get an opportunity to manage a club as big as Celtic again.

On the Trinity Tims podcast last Monday night, I pointed out that when you talk about this era to the next generation of Celtic fans, you will be met with incredulity.

They will never believe that things were this bad at Celtic.

I guess I said that in the hope that by the time the next generation of Celtic fans are attending games at Celtic Park, this generation will have forced the change required for the club to move forward.

For it to be the strongest it can be.

Because right now, Celtic is the very essence of a sleeping giant.

A sleeping giant which is being kept asleep by a sleep walking board.

Who just seem to keep on sleep walking.

I also spoke recently on the podcast when Bhoycie from the Bhoycie bus was on it, about a Scottish Cup game against Dundee United in 1996.

There was an old video doing the rounds with highlights of that game.

I’ve included it below for you to watch yourself.

It’s hard to believe – watching that grainy BBC Scotland footage from 30 years ago – that this game took place at the beginning of the Fergus McCann era.

The future was bright for Celtic back then.

And the man in charge of the club at the time knew exactly what he was doing.

You can see in the footage that the new Celtic Park was still under construction.

Mind you, the state of the pitch is something else.

To someone like me, that doesn’t seem all that long ago.

But what I pointed out on the podcast was that the atmosphere at that game was something else.

The passion and noise, especially when Celtic scored, was off the scale.

On the podcast, I asked why the atmosphere wasn’t like that any more?

Joe made a very good point and said that it was because the same fans were in Celtic Park at the 4-0 victory over Dundee United on the 10th of this month.

It was just that they were 30 years older.

Which made sense to me.

30 years older, and at this point in time, absolutely drained by the people running our club.

If I’m being honest, I think there’s two contributing factors to the decline in the atmosphere at Celtic Park.

Firstly, winning became routine when we had little or no real competition around us.

And secondly, this board has been draining the life out of a very weary support for a long time now.

But the support has had enough.

And the board cannot handle that.

It has been unable to handle it since last September.

Brendan Rodgers talked about the Holy Trinity at Celtic almost a decade ago.

He said it comprised the fans, the team, and the manager.

That Holy Trinity is about to become the strongest its ever been.

Because Martin O’Neill has brought it together again.

And unlike during the last decade or so, Celtic now has some real competition around it.

Which in turn will make every game we partake in from here on out a Cup Final.

This will then feed into the atmosphere in the stands.

Being a Celtic fan was at it’s most intense when we had to fight for everything.

When we didn’t have to do that anymore, we somehow lost the passion and the pride in the victories that just became routine.

This board, by bringing Wilfried Nancy in, put us in the position where we have to now fight tooth and nail for this season’s title.

They are still hampering our chances with their behaviour in the current transfer window.

But I believe that the Holy Trinity of the fans, the players, and the manager will get us over the line.

That starts tomorrow at Tynecastle.

Where Celtic will bring a squad full of confidence after their heroics in the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara on Thursday evening.

If you’d told me this time a year ago that we’d have been heading to Tynecastle with the title on the line?

I’d have laughed at you.

But this is where we are.

And tomorrow is where we get our season back on track.

You’d better believe it!

Number of days Michael Nicholson remains Celtic CEO since Wilfried Nancy’s sacking – 19