Celtic 1-3 Rangers: “Haunted Nancy disconnected from reality as Celtic lights go out”

Rangers were never great, but they were stubborn and hung in there and when their chance came they buried them. Youssef Al-Sharmiti, of all people, was the main torturer. In nine vibrant minutes, he doubled his total for the season and wrote his name in a new kind of Rangers legend – from zero to hero.

Nancy spoke later, and in trying to talk about his team’s latest display, she only reiterated his sense of being out of touch with the reality of football.

He stated that Celtic “deserved” more than losing 3-1, when they did not. Not taking their chances when they had them was at Celtic, not anyone else. Merit had nothing to do with it. It was the Celtic board that created a situation that left their manager with few options upfront. Of the meager rations, Johnny preferred Kenny. It didn’t work.

The Frenchman made some comments about the loss not being about players and tactics. “It’s about the moments, it’s about the details,” he said, as if the moments and details existed in a parallel universe of players and managers.

“It’s not about myself,” he said. Well, it is, but to an extent. It’s also about the players he has befuddled and confounded with his inappropriate form and an ideology that he refuses to change no matter how muddled things get.

On Friday, he talked a lot about how difficult it is to introduce his system without preparing for the new season to keep his thoughts in mind. He did not have a pre-season to work with his players and he did not have a transfer window to bring in more players who could play in his system. Yet he continued to pressure the regime regardless. Stubbornness? arrogance? credulity? All three at once?

Danny Ruhl went to Rangers, scouted and became practical. And like Nancy, it needs new players too. Many of them. But he found a way to pull his team forward when his counterpart had only succeeded in pulling his players back in the pursuit of something that only he could see.

The little progress achieved under Martin O’Neill has been sacrificed on the altar of ‘process’ and some selfish notion that Nancy is a visionary building a footballing monument.