It’s not a good feeling to be under-appreciated at your place of work and that may be a feeling a few players, and indeed the manager at theRangers may be feeling today.
Those who follow the various incarnations of the club who play out of Ibrox are far from renowned for their patience, especially when it comes to losing to Celtic. That was no different yesterday, as despite topping the SWPL1 table and not having lost a single game in the league all season, Fran Alonso’s record of six wins and just one defeat as Celtic manager in Glasgow derbies is starting to get under the skin of a few blue noses, and there have even been calls for the head of manager Malky Thomson now they have exited both domestic cup competitions to the Hoops.
In truth Malky Thomson was tactically outthought once again by Fran Alonso and as the Celts adjusted tactically by improving creativity in the middle of the park, when introducing Chinese international Mengyu Shen at half-time, Thomson decided to go long, started trying to bypass the midfield, and simply threw as many striking options on from the bench as possible, as theRangers’ manager sought to regain parity in an encounter that was level pegging at half-time but began to slip away as Fran Alonso’s superior tactical changes began to pay dividends.
One player Thomson decided to sacrifice was a head scratcher, as theRangers manager substituted a player in Brogan Hay, who had been a thorn in Celtic’s side all afternoon, as she set up Demi Vance for the equaliser and came incredibly close to scoring herself in the first half on two occasions.
Perhaps then the creativity of Brogan Hay is somewhat under-appreciated on the other side of the city, however one place she wouldn’t look out of place is in Fran Alonso’s creative and attacking Celtic side, and if Brogan Hay is undervalued at theRangers, she would surely be a perfect fit for a Fran Alonso squad who appreciate footballing talents over physicality, as Alonso showed as he ramped up the creativity while theRangers sought and failed to simply outmuscle the Celts.
Brogan Hay’s contract is up in the summer and at this moment in time she’s probably thinking if a team who prefer brawn over inventiveness is a place she’d wish to extend that contract with. Should the player decide to move across the city to play for Fran Alonso’s team it would not be such a big deal for her. Indeed playing For Celtic has a more natural sound to it has it not?
Meanwhile over at Celtic a player like Hay would fit like a glove into a Fran Alonso team and she’d certainly be valued a damn sight more than she appears to be at theRangers.
The speculation that Hay could be heading to Celtic next season has been bubbling under on their forums for a while now and the matter was being discussed – as was their huge budget of over a million pounds being spent on the Women’s team (Celtic’s budget is much smaller) when that money could be spent on improving their chances of winning their 56th title (sic). Here’s a snap-shot of some of the observations after Celtic knocked them out of the Scottish Cup yesterday afternoon from the women’s match thread on Follow Follow.
“I don’t mind having a women’s team, and Investing in it. But with over a million being spent, it’s right and proper that there is scrutiny of the whole thing. Doesn’t take much scrutiny to see the gaffer and goalkeeper should be up the road, asap.”
“6 defeats in 7 against Celtic is a sackable offence. Especially when they’re operating on a fraction of our budget. That’s two cups they’ve papped us out of now. It’s not good enough if we win the league or not.”
“Think it’s £1.2m…” the money that they are spending on their women’s team.
“He will drive the talented young Miss Hay away from our club with his bizarre decision’s regarding her…real shame as she’s fantastic when she’s on one.”
“She’ll be at Celtic next season. Mark my words.”
“Can’t say I’ve seen that many of the woman’s team but what stood out for me today was we 100% have the better players. An absolutely ridiculous sub taking off the girl playing wide right (Brogan Hay) when she was starting g to run riot & played 2/3 great balls across the box from wide. We not only have the better players but were the better team over the game BUT I felt they could sense they’d get a goal out of nothing and they did and it was as if a few of our players also accepted that outcome for me – a mentality thing for me at times during the game. Also felt 1 or 2 weren’t 100% committed on a couple of occasions and seemed a bit bullied or intimidated – maybe that was just due to previous results.”
(She’ll be at Celtic next season. Mark my words)…”Wouldn’t surprise me given her family leanings and lack of full time alternatives up here.”
“It’s about acting while we can. We’ve still to play Celtic twice in the league. They’re got our number under Malky. They should be nowhere near us with our expenditure. That’s why the cups matter. We should be picking up the treble.”
“To be honest he should have been hunted last season. Don’t think a soul would have disagreed. To give another season is just silly. As someone else said, why invest over a million, and have a sub standard manager?”
“He isn’t a manager worthy of that budget. Today he takes off our most creative player and then brings on three strikers. That’s something an amateur coach would pull at U15 level. Strikers = goals. A fundamentally flawed strategy that never works and screams desperation. That’d be enough to give him the bullet if I was in charge. I’m willing to see him out for rest of the season but he’s a clueless individual. Needs to go especially as we’ll be in the UCL next season if we win the title.”
“Wee Brogan’s maw is not happy over on Twitter…”
Absolutely threw that one away 🤦♀️ https://t.co/qnBQGjhshy
— Stephanie Mckay (@stephnbazmckay) February 13, 2022
“Should never have taken Brogan off that early. Ref was a disgrace. Goals avoidable and one shouldn’t have been given. No one on second post to get the second balls.”
“Baffling decision to sub Brogan.”
Niall J
Brogan was their best player on the day,delighted to see her subbed.She looked totally p.ssed off sitting in the stand.Their manager is old school and tactically hopeless.