Shirts in the garage and medals in an Asda bag
SAYS GORDON STRACHAN
GORDON STRACHAN has put plans to visit the home of the King of Rock ’n’ Roll on hold.
And when he finally makes it to Graceland, the Scotland manager won’t be coming back with a suitcase full of souvenirs.
Strachan, who celebrates his 60th birthday on Thursday, is a huge Elvis fan and his wife wants to take him to the famous mansion in Memphis.
That will have to wait until there’s a break in the schedule so, for the moment, he’s the one giving presents.
He has happily donated several football shirts and some of his medals to the Spartans Football Academy in Edinburgh.
There’s his first Scotland top, one worn when Aberdeen won the European Cup Winners’ Cup and a Leeds United kit from the season when they became League Champions.
Memories are more important than mementoes to Strachan.
He revels in tales of daft haircuts and being held at gunpoint by a famous player’s minders.
The hunt for the souvenirs of his playing career tells you a lot about the man.
He said: “Someone asked me last week where I keep my medals and I said, ‘I haven’t got a clue’.
“The shirts were in the garage and the medals were 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 grandson want to see is my stuff dotted about the house.
“My mum has one or two pieces, like Scotland caps and things like that, my first Scotland cap.
“Even the schoolboy one I got at 15, she still has in the house.
“But there’s nothing I wouldn’t give away and it wouldn’t be a big thing if something went missing because you have all the memories.
“It’s all about the people you played with and the laughs and the jokes.
“You realise how much it matters to other people later on – the people who work behind the scenes or who support you.
“And there’s always a link with you and supporters if you have won something.”
He smiles at the thought he might have a room in his house dedicated to his career.
There’s nothing, well almost nothing, that would identify him as a footballer to a visitor.
“Just that I walk with a limp now and then, and I look like this,” he chuckles.
“I have a lithograph of Tommy Burns flying through the air when we beat Shakhtar Donetsk with Celtic and the boys went to celebrate.
“The only team picture I have got of my dad was when he played for Royston Boys.”
Memorabilia is thin on the ground but memories are plentiful.
He starts reeling off random stories of his time on the pitch.
He said: “The strip for the World Select reminds me that I didn’t realise I had been speaking to Danny Kaye for five minutes while I was in the stand.
“I thought the guy was a groundsman. He came out and shook our hands and wished us all the best and I was like: ‘Wow! It’s Danny Kaye!’
“The story behind the Aberdeen strip is me cutting my hair before the game because I couldn’t see. I just chopped it off with the scissors.
“And I gave my wife a piggyback to bed at the end of the night, after the celebrations and saw Mark McGhee fall in the swimming pool!”
He stops to smile for a moment and then another memory of playing for the FIFA Select against America pops into his head.
“I got stopped by Maradona’s minders on my way to my room,” he goes on.
“These were guys with guns and they wanted to know what I was doing.
“I said, ‘I play’ and the boy just laughed at me!
“Terry Butcher was there, so was Pat Jennings. We had fun, the three of us.
“If I played the game just now I don’t think I’d enjoy it as much.
“We were all about groups. At Aberdeen all the players used to go out together with their wives on a Saturday night and have fun.
“The babysitters used to be guys like Bryan Gunn and Eric Black.
“They did it because Fergie would tell them to and then get them together on the Monday morning to find out who came in at what time.
“I loved that camaraderie, loved meeting people. I still do, even now.
Fast forward to 2017 and Strachan continues to enjoy speaking to fellow footballers.
He said: “The biggest kick I get now is players phoning you for advice and thanking you for your help.
“It’s better than the shirts, seriously.
“I am not dismissing the medals and all that, but I get a far bigger kick from people saying, ‘Thanks very much’.”
Even Strachan’s harshest critic
It’s all about the people you played with and the laughs and the jokes
wouldn’t deny him a few days to relax and reflect on turning 60.
It won’t be long before he is back in the spotlight as Scotland try to breathe life back into their World Cup qualifying campaign.
There’s a friendly against Canada on March 22 and then a Group F qualifier against Slovenia at Hampden.
The result of the first game might well decide how much backing he gets in the second.
His biggest fan, however, will definitely be there.
He said: “My wife, Lesley, has seen more games than anyone I know.
“She’s watched pretty much every game I ever played in my career, and in management it’s been the same.
“She goes to all the games that I go to now.
“She has her favourites as well – Georgios Samaras, Shaun Maloney, Scott Brown and Robbie Keane.”
Strachan doesn’t believe he was hard to handle as a player. A little bit cheeky, but full of commitment.
His feisty side has been evident throughout his managerial career but he maintains that, by necessity, he’s now a calmer character.
Others, he notes, aren’t following his lead.
He said: “I was never a real bully, but we’re in the era now where you can lose players in a dressing room.
“You’ll get assistant managers saying you could lose them if you’re a bit hard on them and I’ll say, ‘ Well you might as well lose them because they’re not very good’.
“Mind you, I heard Antonio Conte at half- time in the Italy dressing room when we played them in Malta.
“I’ve never heard anything like it in my life. It was Alex Ferguson stuff. He cleared the dressing room and got right into it. “Jurgen Klopp’s the same. “So 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.
“It has gone full circle. It’s back to the young Alex Ferguson days.
“It didn’t do anyone any harm. We all survived.”