Celtic 1-3 Rangers: ‘Haunted Nancy detached from reality as Celtic’s lights go out’

Rangers were far from perfect but they were tenacious, hung in there and buried their chances when they came. Youssef Chermiti was the chief torturer of all people. In nine thrilling minutes he doubled his season total and wrote his name into a new kind of Rangers pantheon, from zero to hero.

Nancy spoke later and reaffirmed her distance from football reality as she tried to describe her team’s latest presentation.

He said Celtic deserved more than a 3-1 defeat, but not this. It was up to Celtic, no one else, not to take chances when they had the chance. Rights had nothing to do with it. It was the Celtic board who created a situation where their manager had very few options up front. From the meager rations, Johnny chose Kenny. It didn’t work.

The Frenchman made some comments that the defeat was not about the players and tactics. “It’s about the moments, it’s about the details,” he said, as if there were moments and details from players and managers in a parallel universe.

“This isn’t about me,” he said. Yes it is, but only up to a point. It’s also about the players he confuses and bewilders with his inappropriate ways, and the ideology he refuses to change no matter how messy things get.

On Friday, he talked about how difficult it was to introduce his system without pre-season to put his ideas into action. There was no pre-season to work with his players and no transfer window to bring in more players who could play in his system. But he still continued with the system no matter what. Stubbornness? Arrogance? Naivety? All three?

Danny Rohl went to the Rangers, studied what he had and acted pragmatically. Like Nancy, he needs new actors. Many. But where his counterpart managed to set his players back in pursuit of something only he could see, he found a way to move his team forward.

The smooth progress achieved under Martin O’Neill has been sacrificed on the altar of “process” and some selfish notions that Nancy was a visionary building a football monument.