Gonna wash that MLS right outta my coach
Wilfried Nancy’s Scottish adventure gets cut short. Real short.
Wilfried Nancy isn’t American, but he might as well be when it comes to his coaching background. The Frenchman was fired by Celtic this week after just eight games, and less than two months, in charge.
That’s not very long. Now, in fairness to Celtic, he had lost six of those games, which isn’t very Celtic of him. The club now sits all the way in third place in the Scottish Premier League after 20 games played –- also not acceptable for a club that has won 1,543,876 of the last 1,543,875 titles in Scotland.
Give or take.
In case you are just now paying any attention to the SPL this year, it’s not actually Rangers that Celtic is chasing for the top at the moment. Hearts is six points up on the Green part of Glasgow, and three up on Orange side. I mean blue. I’m going to regret that joke, aren’t I?
So, anyway, that’s kinda fun. It won’t likely last, but it’s fun.
Anyway, to bring this back to Nancy: the reason I am suggesting he might as well be American is the reaction to his firing has been a lot of exhausting commentary about how it should be expected due to do the stench of MLS that was all over him.
Even as more and more players make the move from MLS into European football, the idea that someone could learn to manage over here before making the jump is still seen as madness by most on the other side of the Atlantic. They suggest that there are special characteristics to the European game that make it unlikely that someone could be successful. It’s a narrative that sticks, even when a manager sees some success.
No one talks about Jesse Marsch’s time at Salzburg, right?. The focus remains on his struggles at Leeds. As one example.
The truth is that there isn’t a big enough sample to truly know if you can make the jump to the biggest leagues in Europe (or, even, Scotland) because the bias against North American coaches runs so deep that they rarely get the opportunity to even try. When they do they are always the American Manager, too. It’s a lot to overcome.
What would be fairer would be to treat these men as the individuals they are.
But where’s the fun in that?
So, is there an MLS-ness to them that makes it harder to be successful?
Maybe.
Yeah, I’m going to go with maybe here.
It’s not that I think they know the game any less than their euro counterparts – that’s ridiculous – but there might be something cultural about how coaches coach in North America that is off putting to European players. Something about their communication style and love of stystems (Nancy was stubborn in how he wanted to play).
It’s not like there aren’t European managers who share those charcteristics, but they have more acceptable accents. Like, Ted Lasso is satire, but…well…you know.
So, like I said, maybe. Even if that difference is only in how the managers are perceived by theplayers. If you have lost the room before you’ve stepped ito it, it’s going to be a struggle. Hell, we’ve even seen that play out here, in MLS. See Insigne v Bradley for further information.
Of course it could also just be that they aren’t getting the job done. Nancy did lose six of eight, after all.
Regardless, his failure in Scotland isn’t going to make it any easier for the next North American coach to make the jump.
Even if they are actually European.
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Reds Ramblings: I wanted to make a brief mention of TFC’s off-season moves so far.
They’re fine. Maybe even promising, but a lot depends on how much Walker Zimmerman has left in th tank. Ive been beating the drum for prioritizing domestic signings for years (remember, Americans are domestics in Canada in MLS), so I’m not going to be critical of it now.
Brazilian Matheus Pereira could be ok, too, so long as they aren’t paying too high of a Pele Tax on him.
There were signs at the end of last year that they weren’t that far away, but it’s still unclear where the goals are going to come from. Until they make a move up top, it’s hard to get excited.
So, the off-season has been fine. Sign a forward.