Strachan recalls ‘useless’ spell

Gordon Strachan has admitted he “forgot to play football” when he was made captain of Dundee at the age of 18 – because he was too busy trying to emulate his hero Billy Bremner, writes George Cran.

And he has branded himself “officially useless” when given the armband at Dens Park by manager Tommy Gemmell in 1976.

The former Scotland boss has returned to his first club as the Dens Park technical director where he has set about reshaping the youth set-up in the past year.

However, he revealed his own formative years didn’t go quite to plan.

Speaking to Dion Dublin, a player he managed at Coventry and Celtic, on the Dion’s Gaffer Tapes podcast, Strachan said: “I was captain of Dundee when I was 18 and I was officially useless! I tried to emulate somebody and crashed and burned.

“I wanted to be Billy Bremner at Dundee. And I forgot to play football. I was useless.

“I loved everything about him and I had the same physique as him, thought I was as hard as him, but nothing was as hard as him.

“I had to find out my own identity without trying to copy somebody. I found it a couple of years later, and it wasn’t Billy Bremner!”

A few years later the future national team manager would be taken to matches by Sir Alex Ferguson.

Strachan added: “When I was a young man at Aberdeen, about 20, 22, Sir Alex used to pick me up and go to watch Brech in v Montrose and Arbroath games because he knew I loved football.

“We’d watch these games and he’d say ‘this is happening , that’s happening ’ but I wouldn’t get it because I was too young.

“Then we’d get back in the car and we’d have to listen to Bill Shankly tapes all the way back.

“I was never obsessed with the game, I just love it.”