Alonso happy to Dash off as Celtic are in good place
Fran Alonso insists he will be leaving Celtic in a far better place than when he joined. The Spaniard announced this week that he is heading to America to manage NWSL side Houston Dash whose season kicks off in March. Financially, the club operate in an entirely different spectrum to the SWPL – Maria Sanchez, a Mexican internationalist, has just become the highest-paid player in the league after agreeing a four-year deal with the club worth $1.5 million. “Irememberwheni joined Celtic and half of the team were part-time,” said Alonso. “We trained in four or five different venues, sometimes in the mornings, sometimes in the evenings, whenever the players could. “Now they are fulltime and train every morning. It is a totally different level.
“We are a club with four trophies, when I started it was one. We are a team that have won in the Champions League. “The change in everything, in professionalism, it is incredible.
“I am leaving with my conscience clear knowing that I am leaving a great set-up.
“At the beginning it wasn’t like that but we now have a team that can fight for every trophy.” He leaves Celtic at the half-way point of the season with the club three points behind Jo Potter’s unbeaten Rangers side. Glasgow City are five points behind Celtic and eight behind Rangers and it will be interesting to see just where the Parkhead side look for a successor to the charismatic Spaniard. “The work on identifying his successor has already begun,” said Celtic chief executive Michael Nicholson.
As it stands going into the winter break, Celtic and Rangers have dominated the stats in terms of goals scored, possession, clean sheets, shots and goals conceded.
The latest Opta figures show Celtic have been the most efficient in front of goal with the highest shot conversion rate (20.5%).
Alonso said recently that one of his biggest achievements at Celtic was in changing the mentality of the team. It came after their fifth successive win over Glasgow City, a team Alonso felt had intimidated Celtic in his early time in charge. Whoever is charged with taking Celtic forward now will know how close they came to winning their first title last term – but also the fact that it still remains elusive.
It is the next level that this side needs to get to as they look to prove they can genuinely challenge Rangers and Glasgow City.