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[BBC]
He's been in Scotland a week and already Wilfried Nancy is polarising opinion.
A breath of fresh air? A man in the wrong movie? Whatever your take, it's been quite the introduction to Scottish football for the man from the MLS.
One thing he exudes in buckets is belief. Self-confidence. A vision of how he sees the game and how it should be played.
All of that is about to get the sternest test of his short career. By his own admission, he's in uncharted territory now. Not only has he never managed in Europe, he's never taken over a side mid-season.
That he immediately ripped up the Celtic playbook should surprise no one. Like Rubin Amorim at Manchester United, Nancy plays 3-4-3. He always has and he's going to keep playing it.
It's Nancyball and Celtic fans better get used to it. It's not that he's inflexible, as there is plenty of fluidity and adaptability built into his system.
Just don't expect him to adopt Martin O'Neill (or anyone else's) way of playing for the sake of an easy transition or to appease suspicious sections of the support.
What's abundantly clear from his first few days is Nancy is his own man and proudly so. He believes he can get results by encouraging his players to work in a certain way and focus on the performance rather than result, confident the latter will come if the former is on point.
He's had success working this way in Canada and America and fully believes it can translate, transatlantic.
On a sample size of one match, no conclusions should be drawn either way. What can be deduced, though, is a well-drilled, highly capable Hearts coped with his system without too many problems, once they'd figured out what they were facing.
Rome was not built in a day, however. The more training sessions Nancy can deliver - with or without the tactics board - the more clearly he can get his message and new ideas across.
His problems, if there are any this early, are probably two-fold. He needs time and complete buy-in from his players.
The degree of patience accorded by an already restless fanbase will directly correspond to the results in the next two games.
Nancy will hope performances are taken into account. They won't be, certainly not on Sunday. He simply has to win the League Cup final against St Mirren, regardless of how well the team plays, to give himself and his methods breathing space.
Before that, of course, the little matter of one of Italy's best teams in the Europa League. Roma were two up in around half an hour at Ibrox earlier in the campaign. A repeat of that at Celtic Park will set alarm bells ringing.
In his first venture into European football, Nancy will need to show that his side is competitive against a high-calibre opponent likely to pounce on any sign of weakness or confusion.
The Frenchman firmly believes in his philosophy. He's convinced it can work at Celtic. That belief is about to given a critical stress-test over the next few days.
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[BBC]
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