It makes sense considering they hired Corey Wray as their GM. He and Issa were the two potential successors to Bez and Wray rightly left Columbus after they gave the job to Tall.
I watched Nancy’s interview on Celtic’s social medias and he didn’t mention the crew at all when they asked him about his managerial experience. The interviewer later brought up him winning the cup with us and he didn’t talk about it. Sorta weird.
Good spot. I think that job is between Courtois, Critchley, Damet and Javi Morales, and that's why it's being held up because of Miami's run.
We’ll know soon enough whether Nancy has grown as a manager. The conventional wisdom in here seems to be that Celtic will be a poor fit for him. His talent is limitless. But stubbornness and ego can drag down even the most talented.
Which is the way it should be, the GM should be more powerful than the coach, the GM should dictate play style and roster, etc.
I like Nancy, but I don't like the move to Celtic. He isn't going there because of the fit, he's going there as a stepping stone. He'd be much better suited to going to Rennes (which was rumored) and coaching a midtable French team, with a historically good academy, in a league where playing young dudes and selling them for profit is encouraged. Celtic ain't that.
It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Bez stuck around. I think there would have been a power struggle between the two. For the first year and a half Nancy was here, he didn't really much ammo to be able to demand roster control. But after the MLS Cup and CCC, he had very clearly proved that his system could work even though, in his opinion, he was still working with pieces that he inherited and wouldn't have picked himself. Bez just so happened to leave right at that time though, so we never really got to see it play out. I really do wonder if Bez would have started giving Nancy more of a say in roster decisions and, if not, how Nancy would have handled that.
But on the other hand, he signed a 2.5 year contract which these days is guaranteed money whether you keep your job or not. I think it is a win win for a coach. You succeed and it's a stepping stone, you don't succeed you get a payout, time to reset and then take that job at Rennes.
Second the weird. Nancy was specifically asked about his past and he waxed lyrical about Montréal, but didn’t devote a single sentence to Columbus. Nancy is most certainly aware of the current situation with Celtic and his comments seem very carefully orchestrated to get the fans onside. Side note, Celtic’s training center may have an amazing view, but the facilities were not as nice as ours. That surprised me.
I know Porter may not have had the same level of control of who was on the roster, but he sure as hell controlled who played and got opportunities. To much of our and the FO's chagrin. Maybe Nancy learned that if you have a deep or at least big roster, someone in the org (and fans) will be pressuring you to play the guy. Small roster allows you to avoid the backup quarterback phenomenon.
Maybe, maybe not. If Nancy lasts half a season in Scotland, with the biggest team in the league, why would another decent team in a top 5 league hire him?
Pro sports in America have phenomenal infrastructure that isn't 50-100 years old like in many parts of Europe (Valencia's stadium, Mestalla, was built in 1923).
Is it possible that ownership squashed an opportunity for him to move to Europe during this past season (due to timing, inadequate fee, etc.) and he is now holding a grudge?
Nancy may well have been frustrated with Jimmy playing hardball and dragging this out. I do think we romanticize Nancy a bit, but he may well have seen Columbus as a stepping stone and in his rear view now. He had no ties to the city before and based on the lack of comments on the way out I'm not so sure he really cares. He seemed to always be a man of few words in public, so this does fit his past actions.
The training equipment looked inferior too though, not just the building. Yes, Nancy was a man of few words in Columbus. He’s singing like a canary in Scotland though. He’s showing a deep media savvy that I was unaware he had.
How much of that is because European teams aren't being threatened with a move thousands of miles away? (Some people connect that to their system of promotion/relegation.)
The necessary level of savvy in Scotland may well necessitate this. I am also guessing he likely doubled or tripled his salary in this move which changes his requirements.
Where would a team like Valencia move to? Relocation doesn't happen in Europe because a team already exists everywhere and pro/rel is accepted as normal (also, contrary to popular belief, Europeans can like multiple teams). Not to mention that the real estate opportunities are completely different, and the money isn't there like in America.
He didn't need boat loads of savvy to deal with the hard hitting questions asked by Massive Report and whatever intern the Dispatch recently hired that never watched soccer before.