The Mistakes of Celtic’s Lost Decade Must Not Be Repeated

Back in 2007 Celtic started to compete in women’s football. Elaine C Smith was the ‘patron’ and Tommy Burns a great supporter.

Things developed very well indeed and from a starting start Celtic won the League Cup in 2010. Here is a photograph of the winning Celtic team.

That winning Celtic team included Gemma Fay, Jo Love, Maddy Fulton, Leanne Crichton, Suzanne Grant, Christie Murray and Amy McDonald. Literally hundreds of international caps in that lot but sadly not while playing for Celtic. Remarkably Glasgow City were actually allowed to cherry pick the best players from Celtic!

Wasted years caused by a lack of vision as Celtic failed to capitalise on the women’s game at the early stages and allowed Glasgow City to win 14 league titles in a row. Hibs incidentally had won the League Cup on the previous four occasions prior to Sunday.

Fran Alonso changed all that but how many times have we written about playing and mostly always beating theRangers despite their big spending? Celtic have a young, talented and successful side who have now held their own in their Champions League debut and brought silverware back to Paradise. Alonso has shown, like Ange Postecoglou, that he has a great eye for a player. Let’s back him and take Celtic to the next level, as the dominant force in the women’s game and a team capable of competing in the new Champions League format which is lucrative in terms of the financial benefits.

Celtic won the League Cup on Sunday and dominated Glasgow City from start to finish. 1-0 flattered them big-time and we had the majority of the crowd there too. Celtic must not miss the opportunity again as happened in 2010. Big, global sponsors are lining up to back the women’s game – Celtic must be able to compete and can become a decent Champions League side under Fran Alonso – if he’s backed.

Image taken during the Scottish Women’s Premier League Cup Final match between Glasgow City and Celtic Women at Firhill Stadium, Glasgow, Scotland on 17 October 2021.

The problem in 2010 was lack of vision and lack of investment. The players were clearly good enough. Pretty much Groundhog Day but will Michael Nicholson have the necessary vision that Peter Lawwell was clearly lacking?

In the summer we somehow allowed two of our best players from last season to leave, one on a season long loan to join Birmingham City. The players wanted to play in England. They are bottom of the league, the manager who brought them to the Midlands – former Glasgow City boss Scott Booth – got sacked while Celtic have been in the Champions League and won the League Cup.

In 2010 sadly the grass was greener for those Celtic Ghirls to go elsewhere. But that’s NOT the case in 2021 under Fran Alonso. Let’s not make the same mistakes as the last time Celtic.