Are Celtic ready to appoint a new manager?
According to widespread reports, Celtic were given permission to speak to Columbus Crew manager Wilfried Nancy and negotiations took place over the weekend.
The Frenchman won both the MLS Cup and Leagues Cup in charge of the Black and Gold and is now the favorite to take over the reins from Martin O’Neill.
If Nancy were to trade Glasgow for Ohio, he would be tasked with assembling a cohesive team considering the Celts’ current injury crisis and poor team composition.
So which players are in danger of becoming the new Luis Palma despite having less than stellar starts to their hoops careers?
Why Luis Palma failed at Celtic
Few players have had such a bright start to their Celtic career, but have been forgotten as quickly as Parma.
The Honduran got off to a shocking start in Glasgow after arriving from Aris Thessaloniki in August 2023.
He scored four goals in his first eight games in the Premiership, taking his total to ten in his first season. These included scoring in Champions League home games against Atletico Madrid and Feyenoord, as well as the heartbreak of seeing a last-gasp winner against Lazio canceled out by VAR.
However, Parma was no longer in Brendan Rodgers’ plans last season, playing a dismal 267 minutes before being loaned out to Olympiacos for the second half of the campaign.
He only scored one goal in 12 appearances for the Greek giants, but he joined Lech Poznań on loan this summer and appears to be enjoying life in Poland.
So far, Parma has scored six goals with shots on target in the Conference League against Rapid Wien and Rayo Vallecano, and his goal in Ekstraklasa’s 2-1 win against Viřřódź at the Stadion Poznań in September produced this iconic celebration.
Lech, who have won two of the last four Polish titles, have a €4 million option to buy Parma at the end of the season, which would break the current transfer record of €2.3 million paid to sign Jannick Agnello from Halmstad earlier this year.
Nevertheless, after a promising start to his career at Celtic, Parma appears to have no future at Parkhead, but who could be the latest exciting attacking player to leave as quickly as he arrives?
Celtic’s next Luis Palma
Left woefully short in attacking areas, Celtic instead went on a trolley dash towards the end of the transfer window.
Benjamin Nygren, who returned in June, has done well so far, and Sebastian Tunekuti and Kelechi Iheanacho have also shown promising signs, but the same cannot be said for Michel-Ange Balikwisha.
The winger had long been on the radar of Celtic, but injury delayed his move to Glasgow by 12 months and he arrived late from Royal Antwerp for a fee of £5 million.
However, as the table below shows, so far the 24-year-old has not been able to justify his price tag.
Michel-Ange Balikwisha Celtic stats | ||
|---|---|---|
statistics | It’s finished | celtic ranks |
minutes | 317 | 22nd |
Appearance | 12 | 14th |
the goal | 0 | 16th |
assist | 2 | 5th place |
A big opportunity has arisen | 1 | 15th |
key pass per 90 | 0.4 | 13th |
Statistics by Transfermarkt and SofaScore | ||
As the table highlights, Balikwisha has had little impact so far, registering two assists against Motherwell and Partick Thistle but not scoring against Celtic.
He played in 12 games, but only started two, being included in the line-up for the first two games against Rangers and Kilmarnock in the Premiership, and has not started a game since September 14.
Upon his arrival, then manager Rodgers described him as “a really talented and exciting player who likes to attack and can play on both flanks”, and scout Antonio Mhango was also impressed with his form at Antwerp, describing him as “a great talent”, but Celtic supporters had seen little of that until now.
As well as recently changing clubs, Balikwisha has also made a big decision regarding his international future, switching affiliations from Belgium to the Democratic Republic of Congo, with his request approved by FIFA earlier this month.
This made him an unused substitute when Leopards beat Cameroon 1-0 in the World Cup play-off semi-finals on Thursday night, having been included in Sébastien Desabre’s squad for the first time ahead of this month’s match.
This means Balikwisha, along with Tunisia’s Tunekuti, will miss the game against Celtic during the African Cup of Nations, meaning he has seven games to start his career at Parkhead before the tournament begins in Morocco.
However, should Nancy arrive, this could be bad news, given that the Frenchman has always played in a 3-4-2-1 formation, without wingers, in all 136 games he has coached for the Columbus Crew. It was exactly as I had signed with Balikwisha.
So, as with Parma, it’s clear there are talented players there, but early indications are that Balikwisha is not going to fulfill his potential at Celtic, despite the hefty transfer fee.
