Gordon Strachan insists that 'incredible' Lennon is the right man for Celtic

IF THERE is one man with a handle on how Neil Lennon might have felt when he was lunged at by Hearts fan at Tynecastle last week, surely it is Gordon Strachan. "Somebody said that it was terrible and horrible… and I said: 'Yeah, I started that 30 years ago.' That was kinda retro, that attack. I was attacked twice. I was twice as annoying as Neil," said Strachan yesterday, recalling the assaults by Celtic supporters on him when he played for Aberdeen.

In all other respects, the former Celtic manager, at Ravenscraig Sports Centre to support next Tuesday's under-18s schools shield final, couldn't begin to place himself in the position of his present incumbent after a season wherein Lennon has had bombs and bullets sent to him and been subjected to a campaign of intimidation no public figure before him in this country has had to suffer.

Strachan may be an abrasive personality in the mould of Lennon, whom he set on the coaching path to his current position in bringing him back to Celtic in 2008, but he never had to deal with such distress in four years at the helm of the club.

Indeed, how relatively innocent even recent times were can be deduced from the fact the 54-year-old devoted a whole chapter of his biography to the "yob culture" - fuelled by feeling he was on the receiving end of heinous abuse after a Rangers fan sang "3-1, 3-1" at him in a petrol station following the loss of first Glasgow derby by that scoreline.

Strachan wasn't for giving his treatise on what could have changed for tame verbals to have been replaced by deeply violent intent. And that is despite having lived through this foul period for our football through basing himself in his childhood city Edinburgh for the past four months.

"I've not seen too much (of the headlines]; I've been busy believe it or not," he said, out of football since resigning from Middlesbrough last October. "I've had my head down doing other things for the last three or four months; at times I forgot there were games on.

"It's been a season to remember for one or two things we'd rather forget to be honest. It's reverberated around the world which is unfortunate. It could be a long conversation because I've been in different parts of the world watching football and sometimes it's not as bad as we make out.

"It wouldn't be fair for me to try and cover a lot of the things that have been going on in one or two sentences. I do have opinions on it, which you might have heard before."

Strachan just would not have entertained what Lennon has been lashed with. And he has admiration for how the Irishman has seemed to remain unaffected on a day-to-day basis, though not surprised.

"I know him very well. It's not an easy job; it's not an easy job for your first job. He's an incredible character. No matter what happens, even as a player, whatever problems he had off the pitch he could come in and switch on and start his business again. He can do that; it's absolutely fantastic that he can do that.

"It's like any crisis you have in life, I think football can help. You can put the blinkers on and just enjoy it. I used to just enjoy watching players train and play football because it's an art form when done well. I was lucky enough to have good players to work with.

"One or two used keep me on my toes, mind you. Talking of which, how's Boruc getting on? I couldn't tell you (if I would have stuck out this level of grief]. You would need to be in the firing line to understand that. But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. What has happened in the past couple of weeks with not winning the championship will make him stronger and he'll gather more knowledge for the challenge ahead."

Strachan doesn't downplay the significance of a first trophy win for Lennon, which will be the objective for his Celtic side when they face Motherwell in the Scottish Cup final on Saturday. He recalls the experience of late friend and former colleague Tommy Burns, who Lennon effectively came in for to join Strachan and assistant Gary Pendrey after he was struck down by the skin cancer that claimed him in the week Strachan's side claimed their third straight - and Celtic's last - title in the May 2008.

"Tommy talked about that, about how the first trophy made it feel like it was all worthwhile. That initial celebration. It suddenly becomes worthwhile, all the nonsense you put up with. No-one can take it away from you," said Strachan, who had six trophy successes, with two League Cups and a Scottish Cup, no-one can take away from him.

"I brought Neil back because we needed someone and always had threes (in the coaching team] to make us think. We looked about. We knew he wasn't enjoying himself in England, he loves Celtic, 'let's bring him back'. We got on well and when he was the captain he was always part of our inner circle. We knew he had opinions. He makes you think, that's for sure. And I'm sure he'll have people on his staff who'll make him think, but he's the one with the final decision."

As Lennon has intimated, he has sought Strachan's thoughts at various points across his first full season in management, but the Scot has no interest in building up his own part. "You're just someone who listens," he said. "Sometimes a manager just wants to talk. So you just listen. It's hard to get a hold of him because he keeps changing his number. Trust me, it changes every week." For good reason.Spare Page