MUCH has been made of Fran Alonso's previous working relationships with Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman, but what of the new Celtic head coach's own abilities?
The deal to bring the Spaniard north from Lewes was, by all accounts, concluded quickly. The FA Women's Championship side only learned of Celtic's interest a few days before his appointment was announced on Tuesday evening – and having been offered the job, Alonso accepted with alacrity.
The switch means the 43-year-old is in Gran Canaria with his new squad instead of preparing Lewes for this afternoon's league game against London Bees. Startlingly, Lewes were on an 11-game losing run when he departed.
Alonso's last match was a 6-0 defeat by Spurs in the League Cup eight days ago. To be fair, five of the 11 defeats were in that competition – and four of them, including Tottenham, were against vastly better resourced sides from the Women's Super League.
The last six games were also played without Scotland striker Zoe Ness, who he took to the club from Durham in August. She has a medial collateral ligament) injury.
Despite the recent poor results a Lewes source said: “The team are in a much better position today than when Fran joined. We are proud of how we played against the WSL teams, only going down 2-1 to Chelsea in the 84th minute, and we were 2-1 up against Reading before losing 3-2.
“We don't park the bus – which is risky of course, but we always want to play our style of football. Fran is very possession and combination-orientated.”
Alonso was at Lewes for 13 months, winning just four of his 25 matches. He leaves the club eighth out of 11 in the Championship.
Given the modest surroundings he has departed – the Lewes men's team play in the Isthmian League – it presumably didn't take too much head scratching for him to realise Celtic represent a far better career option.
Both Lewes' sides play at a ground called the Dripping Pan, but if there is an element of jumping into the frying pan at one of Europe's biggest clubs, the new head coach will be in charge of a side which, given its resources, is surely heading in only one direction – upwards.
Alonso comes across as an intelligent, thoughtful and committed individual, and while he inherited all his personnel on Tuesday, including American signings Sarah Teegarden and Summer Green, he has already indicated that quality players of his own choosing would be prepared to join the new professional regime at Celtic.
Teegarden, incidentally, is the partner of Dundee United's Ian Harkes, and the pair attended at least one Celtic women's game last year when she was on trial under Eddie Wolecki Black.
The immediate challenge for Alonso will be to change his new team's style to the possession-based football he is said to prefer. In recent years Celtic have been more noted for their physical style of play, especially against better teams like Hibernian and Glasgow City.
Their opening SWPL1 game against City on February 23 will be a massive marker, although Alonso's competitive start will be earlier in the League Cup. If he can quickly get the best out of players like midfielders Natalie Ross and new signing Lisa Robertson, he has a chance to start at Celtic on a completely different note to the one he signed off on at Lewes.
MIGHT the SPFL be poised to take over the running of all SWPL competitions from Scottish Women's Football?
The proposal is being looked at by the SFA's strategic review, with the smart money on it being recommended for approval when the review concludes in the summer.
The potential move explains why the SPFL chief executive, Neil Doncaster, is a member of the review. He, along with Shelley Kerr, club reps Amy McDonald and Kevin Murphy, and SWF executive officer Fiona McIntyre, are the members of a sub group looking into it.
There will, inevitably, be mixed views among the 18 clubs in the expanded SWPL. For a start five of them, including Glasgow City and Spartans in the top tier, are not currently members of the SPFL – and may have no desire to be in the future either.
What does seem clear is that SWF, who instigated the strategic review, realise they do not have the staff or resources to administer the increasingly professional top end of the game.
In England, of course, it is the Football Association who have this responsibility and are, seemingly, successfully driving women's football forward.
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