Behind the Scenes with Celtic and head coach Elena Sadiku
Celtic won their first SWPL title in May, just four months after 30-year-old Sadiku became their head coach. WFC got unprecedented access to their environment and to the Swedish head coach...
It’s 7:30am at Celtic Park. The sun is starting to glimmer through the morning Glasgow mist and as many around the Scottish city are probably still climbing out of bed or popping the kettle on, Celtic head coach Elena Sadiku is already in her office, tucked away at the end of the players’ tunnel.
Right now, her only company is performance analyst Niko, who joined her when she moved from coaching Everton’s youth team at the start of 2024, but soon the room – filled with comfy sofas, desks, the traditional whiteboards covering everything from training plans and match schedule, and a fridge including the traditional collection of Irn Bru cans – is filled with the rest of her coaching staff who roll in one by one for a morning meeting at 8:30am.
Sadiku has granted me complete access to her day, including the 8:30am meeting, to get a grasp on not just what makes the 30-year-old one of the most highly rated young coaches in Europe, but also where the new Scottish champions are at and what they’re planning for the future.
It’s a good time to visit, the Friday before the team enters a hectic period of seven games in just 21 days, including big games against title rivals Rangers and Glasgow City, sandwiched either side of a double-header against Barclays Women’s Super League champions Chelsea in the Champions League, the first of which will take place inside the 60,000 capacity Celtic Park.
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The Swede takes me out onto the pitch, and while I’ve seen the stadium many times on TV, the size and depth of the stands takes a momentary breath away, despite the fact all is calm and quiet right now.
A first glimpse into Sadiku’s psyche comes as she talks about the challenge of the schedule ahead of them in November, dotted out day by day on the whiteboard, and one she is going to hammer home to her players in a meeting before training to help prepare for their coming Sunday SWPL clash at Motherwell.
“For me, everything that is a challenge, you can always define or not,” she says. “You can always choose how you want to face it. Either you get excited, you get thrilled, you get happy, or you see it as tough, you look at it the hard way.
“For me, everything in life you always have two choices, you embrace it, or you find excuses and you feel sorry for yourself. If you want to be successful, you already know which option to choose.”
Sadiku jokes it feels like she has been at Celtic “two years already” because there has been so much to do and so much happened, but in reality, it has not been even a year since she joined in January and instantly guided the club to a dramatic first league title, sealed with a 90th-minute goal from Amy Gallacher at Celtic Park back in May.
Since then, they’ve progressed through two tough qualifiers to become the first Scottish side to make the new Champions League group stage, where they have already faced FC Twente and Real Madrid, ahead of their two meetings with Chelsea coming up later this month.
As we chat away, she is enthused by what she saw in both games so far, despite 2-0 and 4-0 defeats respectively, pointing to the A4 sheet of paper stuck on the wall on her desk where she stares straight at it every day with everybody’s fitness scores, emphasising the increase since she joined, but it’s not yet enough to get them competing with Europe’s elite.
“As long as I’m their coach here, you have to want to be here because you want to be the best in Scotland…”
She’s realistic about that, but is under no illusions about what she wants to achieve in the long-term at the club.
“There are many successes we’ve already achieved, but I think when you look at the whole picture…we’re not close enough to creating that mindset and environment. When people talk about Celtic, us really dominating.
“The team to beat domestically, we haven’t earned that yet because we are a bit too inconsistent. Our highest performance is very high, but our lowest is not the best. When we came back in the summer, I said fitness wise we can’t just compare to teams in Scotland, we have to compare to teams in Europe.
“When it comes to Champions League, that’s not where we are right now and that’s going to take some time. That’s the physical aspect, but also how many times can we do the maximum over time? When it gets intense you get tired quicker, then the mental part of it is learning how to handle pressure.
“We’re the champions, we’re being chased and that’s something they’re not used to. We want to embrace that pressure, see it as a good thing, be confident about it. ‘You want to beat me, so I have to be better than you’, and I don’t think we’re there yet. 24/7 being a professional, I don’t think we are there yet. What is professional? What we do inside, what we do outside. This is a work environment, you have to want to be here, to love it, it’s not about coming in and getting out fast, it’s everything to be the best player you can be, and that mindset isn’t there yet.
“If you play under me, I need that passion and that determination. As long as I’m their coach here, you have to want to be here because you want to be the best in Scotland. We can do more when it comes to how dominant we can be, but before I leave, I want to make sure that’s where I leave them.”
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