WHAT has the potential to be the best job in Scottish women's club football is now available after Celtic and manager Eddie Wolecki Black parted company last week. Whoever succeeds him will have an unprecedented budget and a core of professional players to work with.
No explanation was offered for the departure, but the statement issued by the club on Thursday evening suggested it was reasonably amicable. It is understood there were areas of concern for both the club and the manager, leading to the conclusion that a change was the best option.
What was odd was the timing, as it had been assumed Wolecki Black would be in charge when Celtic announced their ambitious plans for the women's side in 2020. That was also expected to be last week, but didn't happen.
The unconfirmed word is that the club has allocated around £500,000 towards the women's team next year, with several players already having been signed on pro contracts. Whether they will include two from Hungary and the United States who committed to Celtic earlier in the year remains to be seen.
The immediate question is who will replace Wolecki Black. With the increased investment, and a desire to compete in the Champions League, they have two obvious routes. The first is to do as Rangers did with Gregory Vignal, and appoint a manager from within the club's coaching structure. The second is to recruit a head coach with a successful track record in women's football.
They chose the latter when they appointed Wolecki Black in July of last year, as he had enjoyed huge success with Glasgow City. If they go down the same path an obvious candidate would be his successor there, Scott Booth.
The former Aberdeen and Scotland striker has been given little credit for keeping City at the top. He arrived at a club whose players were once the Scotland squad in disguise, supplemented by such high quality outsiders as Denise O'Sullivan and Jess Fishlock.
Professional football in England changed the goalposts, but Booth has taken the relentless title-winning sequence up to 13 while also qualifying for the quarter finals of the Champions League this season. Yes, City still clearly have excellent players, but not of the same number and quality as before he arrived.
The reality, however, is that Booth would be unlikely to succumb to any Celtic overture. He has bought into the City culture, while the club have strengthened their off-field management team to deal with the new challenges presented by Celtic, Rangers and other top men's clubs.
Wolecki Black had the satisfaction of leading his side to a 4-1 win over City in the club's third last game of the season – albeit that it came less than 72 hours after Booth's side had gone to extra time and penalties when eliminating Brondby in the last 16 of the Champions League.
Celtic finished third in the table, eleven points behind the champions and missing out on second spot to Hibs on goal difference. It was Wolecki Black's first, and only, full season in charge and he went into it having failed to land any of his top signing targets over the winter.
Whoever replaces him should start with a much stronger hand.
And another thing...
The new format for the Champions League, which kicks in for 2021-22, is difficult to follow to say the least. But what is clear is that the commercial value of the tournament, and therefore the money the top clubs can make from it, is set to increase from the new group stage onwards.
Given that Scotland's club co-efficient will improve from Glasgow City reaching the last eight of this season's tournament, there are almost certain to be two teams in the first edition of the reorganised competition.
Yet, with the top European nations now going to have three representatives each, City co-founder Carol Ann Stewart admitted: “Maybe this will be the last season we'll ever make it to the last eight – for a long time anyway.
“But if something becomes a bigger challenge you rise to that. Being the type of club we are, we don't like to say something is bad – we just try to find a way around it.
“If it means we have to up our ante yet again – with more investment and better quality players – that's what we'll do. It's all for the betterment of the game at the end of the day.”
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