Former Scotland midfielder and one-time Rangers trialist Michael Stewart delivered a blistering assessment of Celtic’s collapse after their 3–1 Old Firm defeat to Rangers, describing a club in “an absolute state” and a manager presiding over a breakdown he believes cannot continue.
Speaking alongside journalist Tom English, Stewart focused less on the scoreline itself and more on what he viewed as unmistakable evidence of dysfunction at Celtic Park - symbolised, in his view, by the scenes at full-time.
“He disappears up the tunnel at the end of the game, he looks like a broken man,” Stewart said of Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy.
“The players are out on the park trying to clap the support.
“The disconnect between the manager and the team is so stark.”
For Stewart, that moment captured a wider truth.
He argued that the scale of Celtic’s struggles under Nancy is historically unprecedented - and revealing.
“If you were to say a manager could go into Celtic and lose six of the first eight games, you would say it’s a near impossibility,” he said.
“The only way that happens is if the dressing room is completely at a loss as to what the manager is actually trying to do.”
Stewart did not stop at the manager.
While he insisted Nancy “needs to be shown the door”, he framed the situation as a self-inflicted crisis driven by decisions higher up the club.
“This should never have happened in the first place,” he said
“The people on the board that facilitated and recommended this should be showing the door as well.”
In a pointed comparison, Stewart revisited Celtic’s decision to part company with Brendan Rodgers, suggesting the club misidentified the problem.
“They tried to suggest it was Brendan Rodgers’ fault,” Stewart said.
“But he was a top-class manager. The disconnect was between him and those above him.”
Nancy, Stewart argued, is not the root cause but the consequence.
“He’s not the core problem. He’s a symptom of the problem,” he said.
“But he still needs to go. And those that facilitated it need to go too.”
From a Rangers perspective, Stewart drew a sharp contrast between the two clubs trajectories.
While Celtic drift, Rangers have acted.
“For Rangers, it’s onwards and upwards,” he said.
“They got rid of the mess earlier in the season and replaced it with a manager [Danny Rohl] who knows how to bring things together and get results.”
That, Stewart suggested, is the key difference. Rangers squad may still be a work in progress, but there is now clarity, unity and direction - qualities conspicuously absent across the city all present at Ibrox and coming from the head coach Rohl.
English reinforced that view, describing Nancy’s position as “untenable” at a “properly functioning club”, while also highlighting failures in recruitment and leadership that extend beyond the dugout.
But Stewart’s conclusion was the most damning of all.
“Wilfried Nancy has gone into Celtic,” he said, “and he has literally decimated the place.”
As Rangers continue to build momentum on the pitch, the contrast could hardly be starker.
One club moving forward with conviction. The other, as Stewart put it, searching for answers amid self-inflicted chaos.