Celtic sack Wilfried Nancy after eight games following Old Firm loss

The Frenchman lost six of his eight games at the helm

Peter Lawwell leaves with Wilfred Nancy struggling at the helm (Getty)

Celtic have sacked manager Wilfried Nancy following Saturday’s 3-1 loss to rival Rangers.

The Frenchman, who joined on a two-and-a-half year contract, departs after just eight games at the helm, six of those losses.

The 48-year-old joined Celtic after finishing the MLS season in charge of Columbus Crew, with his reign at Parkhead starting on 4 December and lasting just 33 days.

In that time he became the first Celtic manager to lose his first two games in charge and the first to endure a four-game losing run since 1978, with a 3-1 loss to St Mirren in the Premier Sports Cup final particularly galling.

Back-to-back wins over Aberdeen and Livingston appeared to buy him some time, but things went downhill once more with a 2-0 defeat to Motherwell last week and the loss to Rangers at the weekend, the latter from 1-0 up at half-time.

Celtic will now be searching for their fourth manager of the season after Brendan Rodgers departed in October and interim manager Martin O’Neill - who oversaw an uptick in form, with seven wins from eight - was replaced by Nancy. O’Neill may now be in line for another interim spell.

A club statement released on Monday read: “Celtic Football Club today announces that it has decided to terminate the contract of manager Wilfried Nancy, with immediate effect.

“The club thanks Wilfried for his efforts and wishes him and his family well for the future.”

Celtic confirmed that Nancy’s assistants Kwame Ampadu, Jules Gueguen, and Maxime Chalier, as well as head of football operations Paul Tisdale, had also left the club.

It added: “A further update will be provided to supporters as soon as is practical.”

Nancy departs with Celtic second in the Scottish Premiership table, six points behind Hearts and level on points with Rangers.