Imagine if you will Celtic had decided to allow Callum McGregor to follow his dream and head for the EPL two days before the start of the football season. Imagine that move occurred less than two weeks before a Champions League qualifier and imagine the reaction if when the transfer was announced it was to Watford and it was a loan deal rather than a permanent transfer?
Welcome to Blues, @LisaRobertson92! 👋🔵
The Scottish international signs on a season-long loan from Celtic. Powered by @_FarleyandJones.
— Birmingham City Women (@BCFCwomen) August 6, 2021
How do you think that particular scenario would be viewed by the support? With Incredulity? Certainly. Possibly alongside a physical demonstration aimed at the manager and the board and it’s fair to see the player himself wouldn’t exactly have left with his reputation intact either.
Yet that scenario has just panned out for the Celtic’s Women’s team. As a pre-season of intense planning and preparation was due to draw to a close and Celtic started competitive action with a League Cup tie on Sunday against Partick Thistle, an SWPL1 opener against Hearts a week later and only 12 days from a first ever Champions League qualifier against Levante in Trondheim in Norway, Captain and Scotland’s player of the year Lisa Robertson has headed for the Women’s Super League to join Birmingham City – on loan.
This deal is a head scratcher. Not only does this transfer throw Celtic’s preparation up in the air it leaves this group of players without their on-field leader, the club get no transfer fee for their best player and it makes a mockery of Celtic being viewed as a forward-thinking professional outfit.
When Scott Booth left his manager’s role with Glasgow City, I can’t have been the only one thinking City’s loss would be Celtic’s gain. Having lost the SWPL1 title by only three points a state of flux at Glasgow City could only help Celtic bridge the gap with the 14-in-a-row Champions, right? In theory yes, that’s until Scott Booth takes the job at Birmingham City and decides to plunder Celtic for talent.
First up Booth signs Celtic’s star striker Sarah Ewens for Birmingham City’s WSL league campaign, but at least on that occasion Celtic appear to have negotiated a transfer fee, to now be allowed to steal in and nick our Captain on the eve of the season, and on loan to boot, simply beggars’ belief. At least Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a mask and I’m sure those in the carriage didn’t simply lend their expensive jewellery to the highwayman. There is of course a reasonable chance that Celtic have agreed to the player’s request to try her luck back in England on the basis that it is a one year loan deal with a hefty loan fee involved and an agreed transfer fee at the end should Booth decide to proceed with a permanent deal next summer.
Celtic FC Women are not long professional, many players are just on their first ever professional contracts and when there is a chance for these players like Ewens and Robertson, relatively late in their careers, to sample the bigger league and perhaps make considerably higher sums in wages then it is hard to hold onto them.
Delighted to have signed for @BCFCwomen 🤩🔵 really excited for this new challenge in my career! Can’t wait to get started! #KRO pic.twitter.com/zhawrOT5ro
— Sarah Ewens (@sarahewens19) July 27, 2021
Fran Alonso and his players did an amazing job last season, with a small squad and a budget smaller than both Glasgow rivals Alonso as his team split their rivals and took the league race to the final day of the season.
This season from a position of strength you’d expect the club to build, especially given the fanfare surrounding the club’s qualification for Champions League football for the first time, and it appeared they had as players like Tyler Toland, Cheyenne Shorts, María Ólafsdóttir Gros, Shen Mengyu and Charlie Wellings signed on for Celtic. Tegan Bowie and Chloe Warrington signed their first professional contracts and Jodie Bartle extended her stay with the club.
🗨️ In her first interview as a Blues player, @LisaRobertson92 says she “can’t wait to get going” in the Second City. pic.twitter.com/3LSEQXTAET
— Birmingham City Women (@BCFCwomen) August 6, 2021
Now however the rug appears to be getting pulled from under Fran Alonso ahead of the new season. Supporters will ask what club serious about fighting for league titles and Champions league qualification sell their top goalscorer and their top player just as the action they’ve been preparing for is due to start? And Celtic haven’t finished there, Mariah Lee a standout performer on the wing and goalscorer at Celtic Park as the Hoops defeated theRangers last season has also announced she is leaving the club. If you took a straw poll of Celtic’s five best players during the title run-in last season you could bet Mariah Lee’s bottom dollar that Lisa Robertson, Sarah Ewens and Mariah Lee would all make the top five, now Celtic are going to have to do without three of those five next season. You can add Anna Filbey, a free agent after being released by Tottenham while on loan at Celtic, but after an outstanding contribution in the Hoops, left at the end of the season amid calls for a contact offer from supporters.
Now I get that the draw of the WSL is a big deal and I’m sure players like Ewens and Robertson probably wanted to test their skills in that environment but the timing of these moves from both the players and the club is concerning to say the least. It leaves Celtic with little time to reinvest the funds and certainly leaves the team with an unwanted distraction when trying to prepare for Champions league football.
Teammates appear to be saying the nicest of things in public about wishing the players all the best in their new adventures, much the same as they did when Sarah Teegarden was given leave to jump mid-stream and head to the U.S to get married as Celtic fought in a congested footballing calendar to win a league title.
I can’t imagine for a moment, no matter how strong the team spirit is in that dressing room, that instances like that and these last-minute transfer deals do not impact on dressing room harmony and a belief we are all in this together. Did Teegarden’s husband to be, Dundee United’s Ian Harkes, get dispensation to leave United’s battle for top six football last season to get hitched, or in his case was the season finished by the time the nuptials took place?
If Celtic wish to be seen as a professional football club, their actions have to reflect that ambition. The signs were there from Teegarden’s extended sabbatical mid-season that Celtic aren’t quite as professional as some would like us to think, now the transfer of a top scorer and Captain – and on loan no less – indicate much the same.
Make no mistake both these transfers, particularly the loss of Lisa Robertson, severely weaken Celtic’s first team and squad ahead of a season that will see the club fight for three domestic trophies and for the long-awaited chance to play Champions League football. As such if I was in that changing room, I’m not so sure I’d be back slapping and sending congratulatory messages wishing former teammates the best for their season ahead.
I’d be feeling the team was being undermined by personal ambition, where previously there had been hollering of delight about what lay ahead for Celtic in the season ahead. I’d be asking questions of those in charge of the footballing strategy just where the loss of key players fitted in when it comes to developing Celtic as an ambitious and professional football club for the year ahead.
Fran Alonso is always open, honest and frank and he’s sure to explain all that has happened and no doubt will be working tirelessly to bring in new talent.
Niall J
