STRACHAN at 60
The Scotland boss is not one for showing off but will always be proud of his achievements in the game
THE medals were stuffed in a supermarket bag in the garage. The souvenir shirts had been framed a long time ago but never quite made it on to a wall. The international caps are kept somewhere at mum’s house. Gordon Strachan, who celebrates his 60th birthday on Thursday, is gifting his memorabilia to the Spartans Community Football Academy of which he is patron, so his utter disinterest in being ostentatious about his decorated career created something of a treasure hunt for the Scotland manager last week.
While some devote a room at home to showcasing football achievements, Strachan is deliberately restrained.
‘Someone asked me where I kept my medals and I said: “I haven’t a clue”,’ he admitted. ‘But I found them and the guys from Spartans will show them. They were in the garage in an Asda bag. I’m so proud of them but I don’t really need to show them.
‘I come from a footballing family and the last thing my kids and my grandchildren want to see is my stuff dotted about the house. My mum has one or two pieces, like my first Scotland cap. Even the schoolboy one at 15, she still has in the house.’
While sifting through and shifting out the old, Strachan was able to uncover gems that dragged him back to playing days of that ginger mop of hair, pinstripe jerseys and tight shorts. Those fashion statements won’t be back any time soon in the modern game but, while scrutinising his life in management on approach to a milestone birthday, Strachan was struck by one trend that could be back in style.
Might it be the one that has helped propel Chelsea’s underachievers of last season to the summit of the Premier League? Did it aid the club in keeping Diego Costa last month following his bust-up with manager Antonio Conte?
When asked to examine how his own managerial style might be different at the age of 60 to starting out at Coventry City 20 years ago, a flashback from Malta’s Ta’Qali National Stadium and Scotland’s friendly against Italy in May darts to mind.
Strachan said: ‘You definitely know more now. I was never a real bully, but we’re in the era now where you can lose them in a dressing room. You’ll get assistant managers telling you: “You could lose them if you’re a bit hard on them”.
‘Mind you, I heard Conte (inset, right) at half-time going through the Italy dressing room when we played them. And, whoa, I’ve never heard anything like that in my life. It was Alex Ferguson stuff. Seriously. He cleared the dressing room and got right into it. And (Jurgen) Klopp is the same.
‘So maybe it’s gone from your Arsenes and Svens. Where you had to be the professor. Back to the screaming and shouting and leaping around the dugout. So it has gone full circle. It’s back to the young Alex Ferguson days. It didn’t do any harm. We all survived. There’s no one way of managing.’
Strachan hints that he would veer closer to Conte than Wenger, if he had the choice. ‘As an international manager I’ve got a Conte seething underneath,’ he said. ‘But you can’t use it because these guys turn up for nothing.
‘If I was paying them 50 grand, 100 grand, I could demand. Because they give up their time and some of them get no reward for it, it’s very hard for me to be brutal to them or as honest as you should be as a manager.
‘You have to send them back to their clubs feeling as good about themselves as they did when they turned up.
‘You can’t send them back shattered. I’ve been lucky enough to play for Scotland. I know what it’s like to go along there feeling great about yourself and, whether it’s through the manager or media, crawling back to your house and thinking: “I’m the worst player in the world”. All you can ask otherwise is that good players and the right types — it doesn’t matter
what size of gate they’ve got at home — turn up and give it their best shot.’
The mention of gate size, of course, is a reference to the instantly legendary story about one of his Scotland players, Ross McCormack, and his failure to make training — as told to the world by Strachan’s fellow old school gaffer Steve Bruce.
McCormack gave his side of the tale when joining Nottingham Forest on loan last week. While passing no comment on that particular incident, an excuse culture among the football athlete of today is too widespread for Strachan’s liking.
He stressed: ‘Listen, there are so many great things about so much that has changed and the game is better in terms of spectacle, pitches, stadiums, technical ability of players and their speed.
‘I’m just not so sure about the character, loyalty or respect, whatever you want to call it. The: “I’m not doing this, I’m not gonna play”.
‘The character is different. Today’s footballer is like a Formula One car — anything goes wrong with him, he doesn’t play. We had to be four-wheel drive — play anywhere, in any conditions, against anybody.
‘I asked Sir Alex for a transfer in 1982, he told me to go forth and multiply and I was there another two years. We were all on the same wage level at that point, remember, and I’d love to see that regulated a bit more now. Do you want to pay Messi £800,000-a-week? Of course I do, because he entertains us. Do you want to pay £50,000-a-week to someone who can hardly kick the ball and never play? No.’
The priceless items being handed over to Spartans, based in the part of north Edinburgh where Strachan grew up, include jerseys worn on his 50th Scotland cap, representing Aberdeen on a European glory night, leading Leeds to the title in 1991/92 and playing for Rest of the World against Americas after the 1986 World Cup Finals.
The fun stories behind the collectables, says Strachan, spring to mind quicker than the images of high achievement. Mistaking film legend Danny Kaye for a groundsman at that all-star game, Maradona’s gun-toting minders refusing to believe he was a player, giving himself a haircut so he could see clearly before helping Aberdeen to Euro triumph. ‘It’s all up there,’ says Strachan pointing to his head.
The biggest kick, he claims, is not gazing at shirts and medals but fielding calls from players for advice then simply receiving back a word of thanks for the help. Yet it’s not mates, movers and shakers from the football world or young coaches hanging on his word who we see sitting next to Strachan every week on his travels in the game, captured on TV or spotted at the stadium. It’s wife Lesley.
‘She’s seen more games than anyone I know,’ he said. ‘She’s watched pretty much every game I ever played in my career. And management, it’s been the same. Plus she goes to all the games that I go to now. She has her favourites as well — Shaun Maloney, Scott Brown, Robbie Keane.
‘She doesn’t really pass comment but she knows the game, she’s not daft, especially since I became a manager. She was going to take me to see Graceland for the birthday but it’s not conducive to the time of year. So that might have to wait for a few months. I’m a huge Elvis fan.’
‘AS A MANAGER, I’VE GOT A CONTE SEETHING UNDERNEATH. BUT YOU CAN’T USE IT BECAUSE PLAYERS ARE TURNING UP FOR NOTHING’
All you can ask is that the right types — it doesn’t matter what size of gate they’ve got at home — turn up and give it their best