It will probably not come as a great surprise to most Celtic fans that Fran Alonso has expressed his frustration at the transfer strategy within the club in relation to the women’s team. His comments, which appeared tonight on one of the other Celtic sites, are emblematic of the way our club does things, and echo into the first team squad as we know.
“The problem for me,” he said, “was how ineffective we were about retaining the quality players we produced. I was there four years, and we lost our top goal scorer every year while (the Ibrox side) or Glasgow City would not lose theirs.”
A week or so ago, I did a piece in which I mentioned the women’s team and the redevelopment of the Barrowfield complex. I said that it was a vanity project at a time when the B team is characterised by its mediocre results and the Sunday League environment in which it plays its games, but I was especially critical of what has happened to our ladies side.
They were one of the highlights of last season, and it was obvious from the start of this one that some of the spark had gone out of both the team and the man at the helm. This is precisely what happens when a boss is told, consistently, that he has to do more with less. It is what happens when the team he’s managing is weakened in every consecutive campaign.
Celtic is a club with a short-term, small side mentality. Even having one hand on the league trophy last season was not enough for the people who run us to reward Fran Alonso with the funding he needed to take that next step. Women don’t early nearly the salaries men do in this game; we could build a showpiece women’s side if we got serious about their team. We’re content, it seems to me, to be also-rans in our own back yard instead.
And this is the self-defeating ethos which permeates this whole club and that starts from the top down. It’s as if the people running Celtic have lost sight of what the purpose of a football team is; to win things. Football clubs are dream factories. Our board puts numbers on a piece of paper in front of giving fans something to dream about, and as everyone knows this isn’t about spending more than you earn, it’s about showing the requisite level of ambition to demonstrate your seriousness to the world … and if you do that the financial rewards will come.
If we thought about this correctly, if we had taken the women’s team seriously, we’d have our first title by now. We’d have sent out a signal to the big clubs in England that we’re looking to Europe and the possibility of marching on there. We have no interest in that. The idea of going for the big fish and trying to attract that additional sponsorship is an alien concept.
Fran Alonso wanted to try his hand at being a men’s coach. He would have left at some point. But when I heard, over the summer, that we were cutting back on his budget I knew he wasn’t long for staying. We may not have forced him out, but we gave him no reason to stay.
I read some bullshit on the infamous “bedwetter” blog that Daddy Lawwell was a big Tim when he was at school and how much Celtic meant to him.
Another apologist implying that he only has the best interests of the club at heart.
There is the usual magumba about how successful we have been under his rule, which I believe has been discredited some time ago.
The truth is, now Lawwell is holding Celtic back, profiting himself while the club goes backwards in footballing terms.
Lawwell is a proven liar, a parasite and a charlatan who has done more harm to Celtic than anyone over Ibrox way could possibly have imagined in even their wildest fantasies.
The sooner this creature, his progeny and camp followers are gone, the better for our club.
It is too important and precious to have this chancer involved in it in any way.
He hit the nail on the head.
Celtic is a club with “a short term, small side mentality”.
People are beginning to see this now not just within our club, but all over the world. A once proud club will soon have no respect whatsoever.
As I said yesterday, there is a cancer at our club. It has a name, in fact it has two names, both family names. If the major shareholder does nothing about this, it may have 3 names.
This cancer is eating away at our club. Our club, not their club.
The cure is to cut it out so that the club can heal.
Fran Alonso is a totally genuine person and a professional.
That League (The Women’s One) is gone…
While this one (The Ghuys) ain’t just yet we are in a bloody precarious position –
A huge confidence boosting hammering for Hibernian wouldn’t go amiss…
But if push comes to shove I’d take a 0-1 on the night –
A draw simply isn’t worth thinking about !
Yet another condemnation of Pete The Cheat. How long can this Ibrox-loving criminal last at Celtic Park? Every season ticket holder is being cheated week on week by the enemy without…as well as the enemy within. Which is more malign?
Hail Hail.
It is not too late to save this league…if the sunbed king and his offspring are booted out of Celtic Park with immediate effect.
Hail Hail.
Unfortunately Fran is exactly the example of what choices are left to managers when a board that has money in the bank won’t support them in freshening up the squad with additional quality players.
Leave, stay and put up with it or stay but voice your discontent and probably get moved on for ‘not being a club man’.
Also where does that leave us if Brendan left other than a new manager who knows he can’t speak out and has to toe the line.
Can only hope the bhoys return to scoring form and the huns have a dip or injuries. For all the criticism of BR’s style we do make chances. Biggest problem seems to be that they players don’t seem able to confidently put the ball in the net. In accepting that BR’s style doesn’t suit Kyogo he does miss some glaringly good opportunities. Confidence?
I’ve not given up on the bhoys yet, like so many seem to have, but a change in form, good fortune and finishing is so badly needed. HH
Exactly that sir. Whatever else we do or don’t do we still create chances and don’t take them.
Depressing, lawwells out htf lying b!@#@@#£
For me , the bottom line is he’s an accountant.
He will always err on the side of bean counting, especially if his wages are related to the balance in the bank.
Fergus fumigated the place when nepotism and jobs for the boys were the norm, look at the trajectory the club has taken since then….PL and co have taken it back to those days, the place needs fumigated again, and protocols in place to prevent the same people in the same roles for years on end.
It’s also significant that CEO Nicholson chooses to remain silent / hidden.
DD aside, PL is the target for most of our complaints within the club,
As CEO, in name anyway, Nicholson’s reluctance to say anything publicly,
even to Celtic TV, suggests that he is is a weak, placeman for PL,
and confirms that Nicholson is not at all in charge – and never has been…?
To hedge his bets, you’d think Nicholson would communicate something to the
support – even if it’s only a bland, non-critical, ‘let’s support the club’
appeal?
As it stands, he appears to be PL’s stooge, and therefore part of the problem?
This is just typical of the Tory scum who run our club. Bank balances and bonuses before anything else. I despise them all.
A club run by amateurs for professionals, only a big bank balance works for the men in charge.
Get ready to feel the wrath Lawell & Son, better known as Steptoe and Son in sporting circles, always looking for basement bargains to sell on