Wilfried Nancy has given his latest reflection on his infamous spell as Celtic manager.

It’s almost a year since Nancy was brought to Celtic from Columbus Crew, arriving in Glasgow as a largely unknown quantity with no managerial experience in Europe.

The Frenchman immediately implemented a new system amid a daunting run of fixtures, and results were disastrous. In a start unprecedented in the club’s history, Celtic lost their first four matches under his watch.

After the turn of the year, Nancy was dismissed along with key ally Paul Tisdale having lost six of his eight games in charge. He regardless reflects positively on his short-lived reign at Parkhead.

Wilfried Nancy on Celtic: ‘It’s part of my story’

“In the United States, for example, in Columbus and Montreal, there was that same passion, but the difference between them is the passion at fan level. With Celtic in Glasgow, there are no other sports. It’s only football.

“So this is extraordinary, because I am passionate about my profession. I also like to have players who have passion, because I believe that’s what can help win matches. And it was great — it was great because I experienced a new culture and a new environment.

“Of course, Celtic are renowned for what they’ve done, so the idea was to bring something new. That’s why I was committed. When you’re at Celtic, winning Scottish titles is important. You don’t have a choice. But the idea was also to return to the European scene. That’s why the project interested me.

“I also knew that there were many issues regarding the chronic instability for years between the fans and the board. For quite a bit of the period when I arrived, there were a lot of matches and a lot of injured players, but the idea was to go ahead and put things in place.

“After that, unfortunately, it became a bit irrational in terms of performance. I had some really interesting experiences — we should have won more matches. I’m not a guy who talks about what should and shouldn’t have happened, but the reality is that the performance indicators showed that we should have won matches by more than three goals.

“But no, we lost. We lost a few matches, and then there was a bit of fear that settled in regarding the results we had. We still won some matches, but the club made the decision that we wouldn’t continue together despite the fact that we were three points behind first.

“But that’s how it is. It was a good experience for me. Irrational in how it happened, but it was super enriching on my style of communicating, on the fact that it was the first time I arrived mid-season, so ‘How do we get these messages across?’ ‘How do I adjust?’

“The Scots were not very ready. Mind you, I’m not generalising, I’m talking about the football side, ok? They have, in terms of their way of doing things, a difficulty in modifying their ways of doing things. There were some things I tried to put in place, but there was some reluctance.

“But it’s part of my story, and thanks to that period, I feel even stronger, because I learned a lot.”

Nancy was then asked what he would keep from his time in Glasgow. He laughed with his response: “Time! Time is very important, because I needed a little more time to put things in place.

“Then also, the passion. Passion is something I believe in, but being at a club and an environment where there is extraordinary passion — sometimes even exaggerated — you have to experience it once to understand it.

“I loved it, I adored it. I loved it, and it is something I had imagined, but when you experience it, it’s extraordinary. You see people behind the club who’ve known it for their whole lives.

“And they are everywhere. There are some in the United States, but to have 60,000 people who come to every match is extraordinary. So that passion, indeed, was extraordinary.”