Elena Sadiku’s dreadful record but blame isn’t all hers

Celtic FC Women lost 3-2 to theRangers at Ibrox in the Scottish Women’s Premier League on Friday evening, and after that latest in a long-list of setbacks, feelings are now mixed about head coach Elena Sadiku among the Celtic support following the women’s game…

The manager, who joined the club in January 2024, has only managed to get a win over theRangers once. The result came on St Patricks Day in the year she joined Celtic, with Tash Flint striking twice in the first half in a 2-1 victory.

Since then, Sadiku has failed to overcome theRangers on 10 consecutive occasions, with four draws and six losses to her name. Her Celtic side have scored 11 goals, with 18 goals having been conceded.

With Jo Potter departing for Crystal Palace in the WSL2 in the summer, fans thought it might be a positive for the Hoops, with hopes that the former Celtic player Leanne Crichton might take some time to settle in as the new manager of theRangers.

However, it was disappointment in the first derby of the season as Mia McAulay and Eilidh Austin scored to secure victory for their side at New Douglas Park. But despite the early loss to their city rivals, Celtic looked to be on the up, recording good victories so far this season.

Although performances have looked good against the teams in the bottom half of the table, there is no denying that Celtic have been extremely lacklustre against three teams: theRangers, Glasgow City and Hibs.

And with McAulay’s 84th minute winner adding to Celtic FC Women’s troubles on Friday night, fans are now divided and the club’s Swedish head-coach.

The reaction on social media towards Sadiku has certainly been robust. There is a clear split, with some fans still choosing to back the gaffer, with others now taking the opposite stance and calling for a change. A Celtic manager that can’t beat theRangers is bad enough but Sadiku can’t beat them, Glasgow City or Hibs and she currently has her team sitting fifth in the league.

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Clare Boyle, who runs the COYGIG shop, spoke to The Celtic Star about her thoughts on Sadiku. She said: “I was super excited when Elena came in. I felt Fran Alonso had taken us as far as he could and a young, exciting female manager was everything I’d been looking for.

“Elena did very well in getting us over the line to win the league that first year and no one can take away the achievement of getting into the Champions League group stages, but I challenge anyone who watched CELTIC FC Women to tell you they were enjoying the football.

“Players seemed hampered by tactics rather than encourages to play to their abilities, and there was an undeniable atmosphere in the group last season – a season I think we’d all rather forget.

“I think we’d all hoped this year would be better, and it has to a point. We’re seeing flashes of what we want Celtic to be but you can’t get away from the fact that it’s been over a year since we beat any of the teams who finished ahead of us last year.

“Six wins in 29 over these teams is just not an acceptable record for a Celtic manager. The fact that we finished fourth last year is embarrassing in itself. There has to be at least an effort at showing ambition by the club, and any other manager with that record would be out long before now.

“We need change, and we need it now while there’s still a chance to salvage this season.”

A decent percentage of supporters believed that Sadiku should have been shown the door after the team’s fourth place finish last season, and it is hard to argue otherwise.

She had the summer of 2024 to bring in the players that she wanted, and although I think that they’ve actually been good signings, there is still something wrong. If we can’t beat the other big teams, then what is the problem?

There was plenty of discussion online about the atmosphere among the team last season. With the  mysterious disappearance of Caitlin Hayes for several matches ahead of her eventual transfer to Brighton, the discussion was pushed into the public eye as Sadiku denied any sort of disagreement, saying that the key defender was simply being rested.

After Caitlin’s departure, it was expected that a new defender would be brought in to make up for the loss of such an important player, but transfer windows came and went, and Celtic didn’t bring anyone in to replace the most crucial player at Celtic FC Women. Whether that was a managerial issue or a board issue is up for debate, but one thing is for sure: it’s not good enough.

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It would be unfair to put all of the blame on Sadiku though.

There is clearly a lack of funding, with the manager even speaking out publicly on occasion, stating how other SWPL1 teams are receiving more investment and it’s becoming tougher league with Celtic unable to compete financially with the likes of Glasgow City, theRangers and the two Edinburgh sides. This is true, because other sides are getting stronger, but some would argue that Celtic are staying in a similar position.

Some context on the funding situation of the three Glasgow sides. As a club with only a women’s team Glasgow City’s funding comes via an association with a global reach merchant bank. If financial FairPlay was a factor in the women’s game they’d disappear in a puff of smoke. Over at Ibrox the funding, as we understand it, comes from the club via a large annual sum from a wealthy benefactor, so theRangers don’t seem to fund most if not all the costs of their women’s team.

And at Celtic the club lives hand to mouth on the revenue created by sponsorship deals, ticket revenue and transfer fees received. For instance Celtic received good money for the Clarisa Larisey transfer to Swedish side Hacken, compensation when Fran Alonso left to manage Houston Dash and a decent fee for Caitlin Hayes from Brighton. Maintaining this will be challenging going forward as the team struggles and momentum is lost. Fran Alonso created a real buzz about his side and in every season at Celtic he took the team to the last day of the season and won both the League Cup and the Scottish Cup.

Winning the league in 2024 got Celtic into the Champions route playoffs for the Champions League and unlike the Bhoys, Sadiku was able to win some tough qualifiers to get through to the group stages, where Celtic collected no points but were never embarrassed and collected the minimum UEFA payments of around £400,000.

That’s gone this time around and the squad’s wage bill has been lowered as a result. The Celtic bench at Ibrox was packed with Academy players as there is no strength in depth so while others all strengthen Celtic cut its cloth to fit in a world class sort of way. They have created a women’s team that is self sufficient but it’s now her deceasing circles and that can’t be blamed on the Head Coach alone.

Having lost the title on goal difference the season before he set about maximising the goals for column the following season and by the time he left in Christmas 2023 his team had a huge lead that would ultimate deliver the title for Elena Sadiku, something she didn’t want to acknowledge amid the title winning celebrations.

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Turning back to the 3-2 defeat at Ibrox last Friday night, although Sadiku argued that Celtic controlled the game, theRangers did well to absorb the pressure and regroup, and their finishes were clinical. That’s the Celtic problem – they need to score the chances that we get, and while they keep creating them their conversation rate is abysmal in most games.

We can’t run into the problem we had with Brendan Rodgers where we’re praising possession football with no end result, because although that may work against the weaker teams in the league, it won’t against the likes of theRangers, Hibs, Glasgow City and the fast improving Hearts.

Whatever the cause of the problems on the pitch, it undoubtedly led to problems on the pitch, with a large exodus of players last summer.

The incoming signing in terms of numbers didn’t match and many of the Alonso signings were moved on.

Sadiku appears to be a decent coach with great potential and perhaps she’s less prepared to talk out regarding funding after seeing Brendan Rodgers lose his job for doing exactly that. Yet, Celtic could fund the women’s team to become the dominant force and that would get the fans going again, increase sponsorship and even get a transfer model of buying, developing and selling on at a profit working in women’s football.

So there is an argument for keeping Sadiku at Celtic FC Women and an even stronger argument for the club to show some real intent to make the Celtic women’s team the best in Scotland.

So now, it might be approaching the time for a change. Sadiku’s contract will likely be up in the summer, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she chooses to move on unless the club back her. She has the potential but needs more and better players, preferably in the January window if she is going to turn this around and starting winning the big games. Regardless if this continues to the summer without notable results against the top sides then her position will be untenable. Elena will know that herself.

Never downplay the achievements of a fantastic female manager, because the problem weren’t created by her but by the dinosaurs in charge of Celtic FC who refuse to keep up with the times. The message on The Celtic Star on Saturday was ‘back it or bin it’ that’s the two choices open to Celtic’s board.

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