Wilfried Nancy has made an impassioned plea for patience ahead of his first taste of the Old Firm derby, saying Celtic\u2019s supporters will be rewarded if they stand by him.<\/p>\n Celtic host old rivals Rangers at Celtic Park on Saturday, with neither team leading the way in the Scottish Premiership table amid crisis-ridden campaigns for both.<\/p>\n Hearts are top of the tree with 41 points from 19 games, three ahead of Celtic and six clear of Rangers, with both of the Glasgow giants having already changed managers this season.<\/p>\n With Nancy overseeing his first Old Firm derby and Danny Rohl\u2019s only previous taste of the rivalry being a League Cup semi-final defeat to Martin O\u2019Neill\u2019s Bhoys in November, it will be the fifth instance of both teams having a new manager in charge for their first league derby at the same time.<\/p>\n That previously occurred in September 1978 (Billy McNeil, John Greig), August 1991 (Liam Brady, Walter Smith), September 1998 (Jozef Venglos, Dick Advocaat) and September 2016 (Brendan Rodgers, Mark Warburton).<\/p>\n Nancy has lost five of his first seven matches at the helm, including Tuesday\u2019s 2-0 defeat at Motherwell, prompting fierce criticism from the club\u2019s supporters.<\/p>\n But at Friday\u2019s pre-match press conference, the former Columbus Crew boss outlined his belief that everyone at Celtic Park is united behind him, saying: \u201cThe board is with me, the club is with me, and the players are with me.<\/p>\n \u201cAs you know, I need time. Give me time and you\u2019ll see what I do. You can already see what I did before, because I didn\u2019t start coaching yesterday.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d be a liar if I said, \u2018everything is happy, everything is good\u2019. No, that\u2019s not the case, but I knew that before.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m calm with all the questions you ask me. I\u2019m not pleased to hear people don\u2019t like me, but they have the right to say it because, in terms of results, this is not what we want.\u201d<\/p>\n Bhoys putting in the graft as #CELRAN<\/a> approaches #CelticFC<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/sxnMAKtt05<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) January 2, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Celtic are winless on the last three occasions that their first league game of a calendar year has been against Rangers (one draw, two losses), although those matches were all away.<\/p>\n Nancy said: \u201cTomorrow is a big game. But the context is that I\u2019ve only had 13 training sessions with my team. Usually, we would have four weeks of pre-season.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s totally normal that you guys kill me. I\u2019m fine with that because I know where I want to go. Judge me in a few weeks or months. <\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to judge me now, you can do it. I didn\u2019t have the results we wanted \u2013 that\u2019s a fact, I cannot deny that.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to win every game, I want to win titles. I want to create a legacy here. I am going to die for this club, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n Rangers boss Rohl, meanwhile, believes the nervousness that is likely to be present at Celtic Park could be an important factor in the match. <\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of games ahead. We\u2019re on a long journey and we know what we need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Our January Fixtures in 2026. pic.twitter.com\/qYptT5VpxD<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.soccernews.com\/wp-content\/themes\/SN\/images\/300x250_HR.gif\")
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