Elena Sadiku has made quite an impact since taking over at Celtic. Like Wim Jansen back in 1997, the Swedish coach, who replaced Fran Alonso at the start of the year, lost her first two games as Celtic FC Women manager.
Elena will know that Wim put those two early disappointments behind him and went on to lead Celtic to an historic title win, which she will be looking to replicate.
And while’s Wim’s title was particularly significant because it stopped the old Rangers reaching 10IAR, Elena’s achievement – should she get it over the line – would be to secure a first ever women’s title for Celtic Football Club.
Add to that the chance to win a third successive Scottish Cup for the club and it could be a memorable, historic season for Celtic FC Women. Nothing has been won yet though and Sadiku has a steely determination and a supreme confidence about her that clearly is inspiring her players.
It’s Scottish Cup duties this Saturday as Celtic FC Women are at Hampden for the semi-final tie against theRangers, in a re-run of last year’s final where Celtic dominated from start to finish in a 2-0 victory. The other semi-final is Hearts v Spartans.
On Sunday Celtic FC Women got the first of two opportunities to play at Celtic Park, with just over 3500 supporters getting along to support the team. The Green Brigade were a no-show after the club refused them the chance to showcase their Green Wall in the traditional Celtic End, now the Jock Stein stand.
This was done for safety reasons and Celtic offered to open the North Curve but that wasn’t taken up, and the Ghirls perhaps never got the elation that the team experienced last season. Not that it mattered, performance or result wise with Celtic thrashing a Hearts side who had beaten former leaders theRangers Women in midweek, 5-0 with a hat-trick from Murphy Agnew and goals from Lucy Ashworth-Clifford and the Goal Machine Tash Flint.
“It was a great performance,” Elena Sadiku told Celtic TV. “I feel like we were in control, and dominated the game from the start to the end. Obviously coming off the back of a hard week with three games in seven days, and we put in a performance like this, it makes you happy and proud of the team.
“It’s something that we are trying to talk within the team is that we want to dominate games and be in control. I feel like the togetherness in the team, it’s very nice to see when we play,” Elena said.
“So it’s something that I really enjoy to see, but you can also see that around training and outside of training. They’re enjoying being together and creating those memories.”
“It’s easy to stand here as a coach when we perform like that, but it’s something that we work together,” Elena said. “It’s the whole staff, putting effort in analysing everything. Then obviously with our training, and the girls’ response to everything, it’s a team effort for the performance that we put in.
“It was amazing. You work here at Celtic Park every day. My office is at Paradise, so it’s something that I really enjoy, but I also think the girls deserve it. If we perform like this, the Ghirls deserve the best and that is something that I am very happy to see.”
