Interview: Gordon Strachan, football manager

Published on Saturday 27 February 2010 21:04

WHILE he admits having his hands full at Middlesbrough, the former Celtic coach says he will be glued to the Glasgow derby, knowing his old side cannot afford to lose to their bitter rivals

GORDON STRACHAN is talking about the crazy psychology of the Old Firm derby. He's leaning back in a couch and smiling; chuckling away at the mad things that go through a manager's head on days such as this. "I'll tell you a story," he says. "This is what it's like, right. Go back a few years to the December game in 2006 I think it was."

Celtic are 16 points clear of Paul Le Guen's Rangers and Thomas Gravesen's goal at Ibrox has put them within two minutes of making it 19 points. They are so dominant in the league that the thing is already as good as wrapped up, yet still Strachan is sweating. Rangers attack late on and Brahim Hemdani gets an equaliser. The Celtic manager looks on in disgust and does his nut on the sideline. "Hemdani scored with a deflected thing and I went, 'Aw, Jesus!' I felt so bad. Honestly. Really, really bad. I'm going, 'We're still only 16 points ahead. Is it enough? We really needed those extra three points there'. Seriously. The mind starts playing tricks on you. If Celtic win on Sunday then there's no doubt about it, Rangers' nerves will start going. It happens, no matter who you are because then you can become the team that threw the league away and you're remembered more as the team that threw it away than as the team that won it."

But what about the flip-side? What does a Rangers victory do to the dynamic of the championship? This is a scenario that has him sucking in air between gritted teeth. "If it goes to ten points now, it'll be very, very hard for Celtic. I mean, really, really hard. Walter (Smith] will say, 'No, it's too early, it ain't over', but it'll be close, that's for sure. I don't think anybody has come back from that."

We're in Darlington at the Middlesbrough training base, but Strachan may as well be back in his old office at Parkhead, because he knows exactly what's been happening up the road; Allan McGregor and Princess Leah and the curious case of the black eye on one side and the mystery of the Parkhead Deep Throat and his secret slagging of referees on the other.

"The source!" he cries. "Who's the source in this referees' thing? I got it on the internet there. I says to Gaz (his long-time assistant, Garry Pendry], 'Gaz, come in here and look at this'. I've no idea who it is. No idea. Haven't a clue who's done it. I can't see it being anybody in a worthy position, though. I don't see that. It can be self-defeating, that kind of thing. I don't think there is any point in giving out about referees."

Strachan had a look at the dodgy penalty decisions that Celtic have been complaining about. Not a lot to say, really, except that big mistakes were made. "Here's the thing. It depends on what end these things happen at. It's true. What end is a huge factor. Huge. The big penalty claim (Shaun Maloney fouled by Davie Weir] was at the Rangers end. Being at the Rangers end, there was no noise (when the foul was committed]. They happen at the other end and there's a massive roar. Down the Rangers end? Nothing. We had one with Neil Lennon. What he was doing in the Rangers box I'll never know, but it was an horrific tackle put in on him. The ref said later, 'Sorry, I should have given a penalty'. But it was at their end. Look, it's human nature. It happens regularly."

He'll be watching today; him and his brother-in-law in front of the telly, the brother-in-law who travels to every corner of the planet following Celtic but who refuses to go to Ibrox – "because he doesn't want them signing new players with his money".

There are so many intriguing things about the game he doesn't know where to start, but Robbie Keane is as good a place as any. Is he fit or is he not? A critical question.

"You know I tried for four years to get him, but only in a jokey way. I've known him for donkeys. I text him. On the day he joined Liverpool, I says to him, 'Right, that's it, that's your last chance gone!' I thought he would join eventually, thought it would be a wee bit later on, though. It's fantastic to see Robbie and Celtic together. A wonderful kid."

Strachan misses little pieces of Old Firm life. The madness, the energy, the idiosyncrasies of that unique being, the Glaswegian. He was up for the last game and saw a sight that makes him chuckle even now: "The Swearing Man. Ever see him? You'll only find him in Glasgow. He walks down the street effing and blinding to himself, effing and blinding at people who pass by and you're scared to look at him in case he effs and blinds at you, too. You don't get that here. Four years at Celtic was enough, but I miss bits and bobs about living up there."

His new gig at Middlesbrough is not an easy one. The club is downsizing and it's up to Strachan to do as he did at Celtic; deliver more success for less money. Stewart Downing, Robert Huth and Tuncay were sold in the summer; 22 million for the three of them. Adam Johnson went in January; another 7m recouped there. He's brought half of Scotland in to replace them, and they're still on the cusp of a play-off position, but it's not easy.

When he arrived in the autumn, Middlesbrough had three frontline strikers: Jeremie Aliadiere, Marvin Emnes and Leroy Lita. The first two were averaging a goal every nine games, Lita was one in four. Scott McDonald was brought in, but McDonald is still suffering from the effects of a hernia operation. "When he's fully fit, Scott's going to eat up this league," says Strachan. "He really will." But when that will be, he can't say.

If McDonald can thrive in the Championship, what about Kris Boyd? Is that not the partnership of Strachan's dreams? Celtic's main man and Rangers' main man united in England. "Kris Boyd is going to be one of the best free transfers that'll be going about in the summer. Absolutely. One of the best frees in British football. Where will he go? I don't know. People in the Premier League look at Scottish football and see him scoring at Hamilton and they say, 'Come on, gie us peace'. But I know how hard it is. What people down here don't realise is that Hamilton will be so wound up for that game they'll play three at the back and six in midfield, so it's not easy.

"I think he's under-rated, aye. We used to like it when he wasn't playing against Celtic. People say he never scored against us. Well, he didn't play a lot. We'll be looking at anybody who's on a Bosman. (Andy] Dorman's contract is up at St Mirren. He'll be good for somebody. Whether it's us or not, I don't know. But he'll be good value for somebody in this league."

The word from the dressing room is that Strachan is challenging his players in a way that Gareth Southgate, his predecessor, never did. It was all a bit nice under Southgate, a bit cosy. One of them tells a story of a training session when an easy goalscoring chance was missed and Strachan halted proceedings and in no uncertain terms told the hapless striker what he thought of his miserable effort. That kind of in-your-face accountability didn't happen so much in the previous regime. The players, said one local journalist, had become soft.

Strachan's oft-stated desire to get "men" in his team saw him return to the SPL in the January transfer window. And you sense that his raids haven't finished yet. "There's an honesty about the Scottish player or the guy who has played in the Scottish league. We've had people come to this club and still be in hotels after six months because they're not really sure if they want to be here. These guys, Willo (Flood], Barry Robson, Mick (Stephen McManus] had houses within three weeks. The staff couldn't believe it. But that's them taking responsibility.

"There's kids here who don't know what responsibility means. And it's not just Middlesbrough, it's other places. Kids who've managed to get to the stage where they can buy ridiculously flashy cars and have not really done anything in the game. I feel sorry for them. To have stuff so early without having done anything. There is a point when that money will stop and the cars will go and the house will go. I've seen it happening. I worry about some boys.

"There's a reality about these lads who come down from the SPL. If Barry Robson's on good wages, well, he's worked hard for it. He's got released from Rangers, he's had to fight for Inverness, has had to go to Dundee United and play well against Celtic to get his move to Parkhead, so he's worked. Look at Scott, freed by Southampton, didn't work out at Bournemouth, had to go to Motherwell and play for very little money and fight and scrap. Chris Killen, released from Man City, Willo, released by Man City. Mick was at Celtic since he was a boy but had to wait until he was 24 or 25 before you could say he got good wages. Had to work hard to get where they got, all of them.

"Other players as well. Ross McCormack, getting 1,100 a week at Motherwell, doing brilliantly at Cardiff. The boy (Paul] Quinn, same story. Charlie Adam's been a star down here. (Graham] Dorrans another one. Doing terrific. There's an awful lot of Scots coming down here and they're doing really well, so the league in Scotland's not as bad as people make out."

Strachan signed five players from the SPL in January, but it could have been more. He bid a reported 2m for Adam but it wasn't enough. He thought he'd landed Gary Caldwell from Celtic only to see him sign for Wigan instead. Caldwell was a player he really wanted. "Aye. But Gary had a decision to make. He could keep me happy or keep his family happy. And he kept his family happy. I don't have a problem with that."

He might have left the SPL behind, but there is still much that is relevant to him up here, not just potential signings, but mates. And in Mark McGhee's case, mates who are having a rotten time of it. "It's unfair on him. That's the problem, you know. You can go back to a club where you were idolised and then they can turn on you and it leaves a sour taste. That's why if somebody asks would I ever go back to a former club, I say I wouldnae. I wouldn't retrace my steps. I'd be afraid I'd damage my memories.

"People say, 'Are you not still a Leeds fan or a Man Utd fan?' No, not really. I look at their results but the people I worked with are all gone. If there's anybody left that I worked with, I want them to win the game for them. People are my memories. It's the people. Good people at Celtic. Great club. Once you get that bug, you'll always keep an eye on it. There's a young lad out there who does the Prozone stuff for us and he's a Rangers fan. Here we are at the Middlesbrough training centre in Darlington and the two of us are giving it loads about the Old Firm. Great banter. We've a huge job to do here, a big, big challenge, but once you've been a part of it, I'm not sure that Old Firm thing ever leaves you."