Grant Scott – Managing the Champions

Celtic Women appointed Grant Scott as manager in December 2025, ending his second spell in charge of Hibernian Women. Scott made the move to Celtic after leading his Hibs side to the Scottish Women’s Premier League title last season. A few weeks before he left the Edinburgh side, I spoke to Grant about his time in football, the progression in the women’s game in Scotland and Hibs’ dramatic league win on the final day of the season.

First steps

Scott played at Junior level but had no involvement in the game when he took his first steps into coaching. “I got involved in coaching quite late, through my daughter, who was playing at under-12 or under-13 level at the time. It was the usual rules, somebody packed in as their manager and as a dad in the crowd, you step in to help out. That was probably some 17 years ago now and it just started from there. I really enjoyed it and strangely, I had never really thought about doing it before.

Then I went on to dabble in the men’s side of the game with a few East of Scotland League teams, but that never really lasted long. I think because I had been out of the game for a long time on the men’s side, my back catalogue of information on players was more relevant to the women’s game. Being in the women’s game was something I was always quite proud of, so I gravitated back towards it. I just followed a path like a player, going through the age groups from under-13s, under-15s to under 17s.”

A different dynamic

I wanted to hear from someone who has coached in both men’s and women’s football. How do they compare, and do young coaches trying to establish themselves in the game see the women’s game as an attractive prospect?

“It is a different dynamic coaching males as opposed to females. Coaching a game is absolutely no different from the technical, tactical aspect and the physical application, depending what level you are working at. Those parts are all generally identical. There is a difference in how you would speak to a man versus a woman, which is maybe a bit of a dated way of thinking now, but it is still a true thing. I think what I found was not that I couldn’t coach in the men’s game, but I my knowledge base of players and recruitment at the level I was working at was not good enough.

You need to have a few key players in your back catalogue, the database in your mind that you could go to when bringing players in, and I found that quite tricky. I found that easier in the women’s game because of the back catalogue knowledge players, youth players coming through. As a coach, you can see something in a player and you know that they will fit in your system or your team. I think I’ve got a good track record of doing that, bringing players from other clubs and other environments to work with them and then watching them flourish and develop.”

Men’s game

“I think not having that knowledge of what players are out there is what prevented me going back to the men’s game. If I’m being honest, I have absolutely no wish to be there at the moment, and I don’t know if I ever will again. It is an interesting dynamic for people considering jumping across from the men’s game to women’s football. I think when you come through the youth pathway of coaching, whether it is male or female, you aspire to be the best you can be and get to the highest level you can.

There will be a stack of male coaches out there predominantly working in boy’s academy football that would crave a full-time job in football and you can now get that in the women’s game. You are coaching at a full-time level every day with full-time players and you do the same planning, strategizing and recruitment. If you are passionate about football, you shouldn’t close yourself off to those opportunities, because it offers brilliant involvement in the game.”

Amateur status

Scott’s first spell with Hibernian Women was a successful one as the team won both domestic cup competitions in his time in charge. At the time the league was almost entirely part-time with the minority of players and coaches unpaid. When Grant returned as Hibs boss five years later, the women’s game in Scotland had moved on, with a number of clubs progressing to a professional set-up.

“It was very much an amateur status when I left. Teams were training two or three nights a week and it was very much a hobby as an amateur sport. That became tricky for me as I had my own business in Edinburgh at that point. I was trying to work 50 or 60 hours a week and I didn’t have enough time to do anything for myself, or my family, or my partner. When I looked at what I was giving to the team at the time, keeping them competitive, and there was no prospect of becoming full time anytime soon, it was tough. I understood why it was going to be a slower process to bring the women into the club and be full-time, but it was very much a personal decision to leave.”

Different landscape

“Coming back to the club and seeing the difference in the landscape, the quality has gone up, the athleticism has gone up. The detail of our input had to go up to match that because this is now the players’ jobs. It is the coaching staff’s jobs. I don’t know that we are quite there yet in Scotland because of the structure of the league, but ultimately people’s jobs will be on the line for poor performances or getting things wrong. It is massively different now. As with all coaches, I am privileged to be in this role.

Defied all expectations

Last season was Grant’s second in charge of Hibs since returning as his squad defied all expectations to become Scottish Women’s Premier League champions. Glasgow City, Rangers, and Celtic were expected to fight for the title, with Hibs and their city rivals Hearts competing to be ‘best of the rest.’ A title challenge was not really in the manager’s mind as the campaign got underway.

“We actually did not set the team any aims last year, which was a new thing for me. I felt it had maybe strangled us a little bit in my first season back, thinking about how many points we could get or aiming for a particular position. We didn’t put that on the players last season but internally, myself and the coaches sat and looked at our squad and I thought we could maybe climb a league place, maybe two. You do not know what other clubs’ business is going to be either. I honestly thought in pre-season that getting to third would have been our limit.  My coaches Stewart Hall and Joelle Murray felt that if one of the expected top three had a bad season then we could push into the top three and I honestly remember thinking ‘you guys are mad.’”

Belief just grew

“So, I thought okay, we’ll push this team as hard as we can and if we can finish third, that would be massive progress. We never put any labels on it or set any targets. We decided to be the version of the team I had wanted to see, which was really dogged, really determined, but bloody exciting to watch. I would rather have seen us win a game 5-4 than 1-0 and try to be a real tactical genius. 

I think it gave the players confidence the more they won, they knew when they were doing it, they knew they could also tactically be really disciplined, sit tight and just fight things out occasionally. Gradually the belief grows and momentum is a funny old thing. It is so tangible in football, but the ability to create it is intangible. Some of it is by design, some of it is great tactics and some of it is just pure luck.

The more the team won, the belief just grew and grew and grew. You are probably going to ask me, but I don’t even know at what point I believed that we could do it. There were a few moments, I think we were joint top at the split. Then there was a week where it was a four-way tie at the top. I never thought that is it, we have had our time, this group just kept surprising me and kept going.”

Final day drama

The campaign went right down to the final day of the season as Grant’s Hibernian side travelled to Ibrox to face Rangers. Hibs were three points clear of their opponents going into the game but a Rangers win would see them pip Hibs to the title on goal difference. Glasgow City were also three points back meaning defeat on the final day would not only see Hibs lose out on the title, they could also fall to third and out of the Champions League places. The stakes were high and Hibs were so close to the championship, how did the manager prepare his players for such a situation?

“I got asked this for the first time recently and I am still not sure I have bottomed out the answer. I do know my thoughts were mixed inside my head and my body the same as everyone else, but I can never let those true feelings show to the group because you have got to fake it and lead them and give them every single ounce of belief.

I’d not thought about us losing that game until about half-an-hour, maybe an hour before the game was due to kick-off. I cannot remember who it was that said it to me but they said ‘it will be a shame to lose because we will get nothing from a great season.’ I thought at the time, ‘yeah, if we lose this, Rangers and City winning means we end up in third with no European football and we have got no title. Only then did my mind turn to, ‘what if we don’t win.’”

Amazing on the day

“We knew we had the beating of Rangers. I knew that they had not beaten us other than the League Cup final, and we were in a disaster that day. We went in feeling that if the girls were structured, organised, and consistent with everything then they would be okay.

I do not know if I managed to impart that to the players but I had no doubt that the team would turn up and play and I felt if we turned up and played, we would be okay. I’m not sure about the players because you know what it is like individually, we have all got those demons and you wake up during the night thinking, ‘I hope I do well.’ I knew that would have been strain on them, but they looked amazing, they looked really calm when we travelled through and they were amazing on the day.”

New challenge

Just a few weeks after our chat it was announced that Grant had left Hibernian to become the new manager of Celtic Women. His achievements at Hibs in leading them to title-winning glory was enough to make Celtic move to bring him in as a replacement for departing boss Elena Sadiku. I have no doubt that Grant’s approach will lead to success with his new club.