I knew Wilfried Nancy best at Celtic and one decision could have changed everything

Alistair Johnston watched on helplessly as Wilfried Nancy lurched from one disaster to another at Celtic . Having played under the Frenchman at CF Montreal, Johnston was excited to link back up with his former boss at Parkhead.

But the Canadian was left gutted when Nancy was binned after a calamitous 33 days at the helm. Eight games, six defeats and a shocking Premier Sports Cup Final defeat to St Mirren sees the ex-Columbus Crew head coach go down as the worst manager in Parkhead history. And while Nancy had nobody but himself to blame after radically ripping up a winning system, Johnston is adamant things could've been different had he arrived in the summer. He said: "Look, I think he's a great manager.

His football does work. Whatever the case was, it obviously wasn't the right time.

But that's not to say he can't go to another European club or wherever and make it work. "Would a pre-season probably have helped? I do think so. Whenever you're trying to do a completely different style of football and introduce some really new ideas, it definitely helps to have friendly matches to really work on things.

"But that's also the challenge of working at a club like this – you don't necessarily get time. Especially when you come in mid-season, you need to hit the ground running, and I think that's something he was acutely aware of. "Unfortunately, it didn't work out, but I've got no doubt in mind that he's going to go somewhere else and be a huge success." Sidelined with a long-term hamstring injury, Johnston felt guilty as he was unable to help as the disaster unfolded. The Canadian said: "Yeah, it was tough, just because I couldn't be out on the grass.

I knew what he wanted to implement and how different it would be compared to what we're used to here. "It was just tough being injured and not being able to get out on the grass and help things, and help guys understand exactly what he was trying to look for. "Again, French is his first language – there are a couple of things that can get lost in translation a little bit. I was just trying my best, especially off the pitch, just to help guys out.

"But it's never the same when you're off the pitch, trying to talk guys through it versus being out there and helping them through. "It was a really sticky period. We dropped quite a few points there. It was quite a low in my time at the club.

We never had results like that in such a prolonged period. It was difficult."