The Celtic Women have the same problems as the men. They start in the boardroom.

I look at Celtic this season and I don’t just see a stumble. I see a club drifting, pulled in different directions, and nowhere does that feeling feel more raw, more exposed, than in the women’s team.

Because while the noise, as always, surrounds the men, the results, the table, the pressure, I can’t ignore what has been quietly unfolding on the other side of the club. Truth be told, it is not just the same story. In some ways, it is worse.

When I watch the Celtic women’s team, I feel that same frustration I carry when I speak about the men, but there is something heavier here. Something more neglected. This is not just about losing games. It is about being left behind.

Yes, they lost to Sevco the other day. That stings. It always does. But the defeat itself is not the story. It is what it represents. It is a symptom, not the disease. Because when I look at this season as a whole, I do not see a team that has simply underperformed. I see a team that has been chipped away at, piece by piece, until what is left is trying to compete with less, trying to fight with one hand tied behind its back.

I can’t pretend that is acceptable.

From the very start of the season – indeed, since last season – the women’s team have been dealing with budget cuts. Budget cuts. At a club like Celtic.

Let that sink in. While we are told about sustainability, about careful spending, about keeping money in the bank, what I actually see is both football arms of the club being starved of the resources they need to grow, compete and move forward.

What message does that send?

Because when you cut budgets, you do not just cut numbers on a spreadsheet. You cut ambition and you cut belief. You cut the foundation a team needs to build success. They lack depth. Everything feels stretched too thin. They are carrying more than they should have to.

Then came the managerial situation. Elena Sadiku left. Another change, another reset, another disruption. I feel tired just thinking about it, because how many times can a team start over?

She worked an incredible miracle to win our first women’s title. But in the summer, the club told her to do more with less. She said our budget had dropped to the level of a fourth-placed team. Shocking.

You cannot keep pulling the rug from under a squad and expect it to stand tall.

Yet that is exactly what has happened. Another manager has gone and another spell of uncertainty has followed. Another chapter has begun where the players must adapt, adjust and find their footing all over again.

All of this has happened in a league that is not standing still. Women’s football continues to grow. Other clubs have grasped that, and they are acting accordingly.

So, when people say, “they’ve just lost a few games,” I shake my head.

That is surface-level nonsense. That is people refusing to look deeper.

This is structural and systemic. This is what happens when investment is not there, when leadership is not steady, when planning is short-term and reactive instead of bold and forward-thinking.

Of course, I then turn to the men’s team, because we have to compare. It is Celtic. It is all connected, whether people want to admit it or not.

The men have had their own chaos. They have lost the manager, dropped points and slipped to third instead of sitting where we belong, at the top. I have said it before and I will say it again: that is not good enough. Not for this club. Not for what Celtic are supposed to represent.

But here is where I draw the line between the two.

The men’s team, even in their struggles, still operate from a position of strength. The resources are still there to make us the most expensive squad in the league. The infrastructure is there. The expectation still rests on the idea that Celtic should dominate. So, when they fail, they fail against a backdrop of high standards and strong foundations.

With the women’s team, it feels different.

It feels like they are being asked to compete without being properly equipped. Like they are expected to keep up without receiving the same backing, the same care, the same long-term vision. That is where the real frustration lies for me.

Both teams have suffered from instability. Both have dealt with managerial changes and inconsistency on the pitch. But the root causes are not the same.

For the men, I see mismanagement, hesitation and a board that seems reluctant to push forward when it matters most. I see a refusal to fully invest in maintaining dominance. It feels self-inflicted. For the women, I see something harsher.

I see neglect. I do not use that word lightly.

Because when you cut budgets and still expect results, when you allow instability to spread and fail to address it properly, when you treat a team like an afterthought, that is what it becomes. An afterthought. And I hate that. I genuinely hate that.

Because Celtic should be bigger than that. Celtic should be better than that.

This is a club built on identity, on community, on the idea that everyone under that badge matters. Yet this season I have not felt that unity. I have not felt that same shared ambition running across the whole club. Instead, I see fragmentation.

I see a men’s team drifting, cushioned by financial safety but lacking the urgency to evolve. I see a women’s team fighting uphill through cuts, change and a lack of consistent backing. So I ask myself, is this really the same problem?

In some ways, yes. Because at the heart of it all, I still come back to the board. I still come back to decision-making. I still come back to that cautious, almost fearful approach to spending, to progression, to taking risks when they are needed.

That is the common thread.

But the consequences are different. For the men, it is stagnation. For the women, it is regression. Obvious regression. To a shocking degree.

And that is a far more dangerous place to be. Because stagnation can be fixed. You inject quality, make decisive changes and push forward. Regression takes longer. Regression demands rebuilding. It requires commitment, not just short-term repairs.

I am not convinced that commitment is there. Not yet.

When I look at Celtic right now, I do not just see results going wrong. I see a lack of clarity in what the club wants to be, not just on the pitch, but as a whole institution.

Do we want to lead? Or do we want to maintain? Do we want to grow every part of the club? Or only protect the parts that shout the loudest?

Because the women’s team are shouting too. Maybe not with headlines. Maybe not with the same media attention. But their situation is screaming for change. I hear it. I feel it. We should not, we cannot, ignore it.

This season has been a car crash, no doubt about that. But not all crashes are the same. Some are sudden and chaotic, born from one terrible moment. Others are inevitable, the result of cracks ignored for too long.

What I see with Celtic Women is the second kind.

A slow decline that did not have to happen. A situation that proper backing, proper planning and proper respect could have avoided.

Until that changes, until the club starts treating every part of itself with the same seriousness, ambition and hunger, I fear this will not be the last season we look back on and ask what went wrong. Because I already know what went wrong.

And deep down, I think they do too.

When I step back and take it all in, I feel a deep, restless ache. I look at Celtic, the club I carry with pride, with fire, with everything I am, and I see two stories unfolding under the same badge, yet neither is being told the way it should be.

I see the men stumbling when they should be soaring, held back not by lack of means but by lack of courage. Additionally, I see the women fighting, truly fighting, through cuts, through change, through neglect that should never touch a club like ours.

I feel that something precious is being mishandled.

Because to me, Celtic is not just one team. It is not one side of the club. It is a living, breathing whole. When one part drifts and another struggles, I cannot separate them. I will not separate them. I want and demand more. And I know I am not alone in that.

Because in my heart, I still believe in what Celtic should be: bold, fearless and united in every sense of the word. But belief alone is not enough now.

I need to see it. I need to feel it. Until that day comes, I will keep speaking, keep pushing and keep holding them to the standard I know this club was built on. This is not good enough, not at any level, not in any department.

Choose The CelticBlog as a ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the news you value.