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The current manager of Celtic.

Real name Gordon Strachan Nickname WGS (Wee Gordon Strachan) Height 5.06 Weight 10.06 Date of birth 09-02-1957 Place of birth Edinburgh Position RHS Midfielder (attacking) Nationality Scotland Caps 50 -------------------------------------------------------------------

"I don't know if there is another big club where the supporters have a love like the supporters have a love for this club."
WGS on the Celtic fans (quote taken from "Celtic Minded 2" (book), 2006)
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Gordon David Strachan OBE (born 9 February 1957, Edinburgh, Scotland)

Player

During his playing career he played for
Dundee (1974-1977),
Aberdeen (1977-1984),
Manchester United (1984-1989),
Leeds United (1989-1995) and
Coventry City (1995-1997).

He won 50 international caps for Scotland and is in the Scotland Football Hall of Fame.

Gordon Strachan was an aggressive, skilful right-sided midfield player.

Career

Club	From	To	Fee	League		FA Cup		League cup		Other
Coventry	22-03-1995	31-05-1997	Free	13 (13)	0	2 (1)	0	3 (1)	0	0 (0)	0
Leeds	23-03-1989	22-03-1995	£ 300,000	188 (9)	37	14 (0)	2	19 (0)	3	14 (1)	3
Man Utd	13-08-1984	23-03-1989	£ 500,000	155 (5)	33	23 (0)	2	12 (1)	1	10 (2)	3
Aberdeen	01-11-1977	13-08-1984	£ 50,000	175 (8)	55	25 (0)	7	43 (3)	20	30 (4)	7
Dundee	01-01-1971	01-11-1977	Junior	56 (13)	13	7 (0)	1	11 (2)	1	1 (1)	0
Totals			£ 850,000	587 (48)	138	71 (1)	12	88 (7)	25	55 (8)	13
			goals / game	0.21		0.16		0.26		0.20
	________	________	________	Apps	Goals	Apps ________	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals

Management

WGS became Coventry City's Director of Football in November 1996

He finally retired as a player at the end of the season after making his last appearance at the age of 40, a record in the English Premiership.

Strachan kept Coventry in the Premiership until 2001, when they finally went down after 34 years of top division football. He was sacked shortly after the start of the 2001-02 Division One campaign.

Gordon Strachan returned to management within weeks, taking the manager's job at Southampton - after Strachan's appointment in October 2001, they finished 11th in the Premiership.

In 2002-03 when they finished eighth and reached the FA Cup final, where they lost 1-0 to Arsenal, but since Arsenal had qualified for the UEFA Champions League, Southampton qualified for the 2003-04 UEFA Cup.

In March 2004, Gordon Strachan announced his resignation as Southampton manager, earlier than intended because he wanted to spend time with his family.

When Berti Vogts stepped down as Scottish national coach, Strachan was widely tipped to take over until Walter "Wattie" Smith got the job, and he was even linked with the manager's job at Portsmouth, but turned down the offer to take over.

Strachan analysed football matches for the media, most notably on the BBC's Match of the Day 2. Renowned for his deadpan humour as much as his shrewd tactical awareness, quotes attributed to Strachan have become legendary among football supporters.

The 'Tic

Gordon Strachan finally returned to management on 1 June 2005, when he succeeded Martin O'Neill as manager of Celtic in the Scottish Premier League (SPL).

First season

For 2005-06, his stated aim was to regain the SPL title off current holders and deadly rivals Rangers.

He had an embarrassing start to his campaign as Celtic manager, however, losing 5-0 to Slovakian champions Artmedia Bratislava on 27 July 2005 and 3 days later only managing to draw 4-4 with Motherwell in his first SPL match in charge of the Glasgow club, although a few days later he recorded his first win in charge as Celtic won 4-0 in the return leg of the Champions League qualifier. However, that was not enough to avoid being put out of Europe before the season had got started in earnest.

Nevertheless, Celtic continued to improve under Strachan, leading the SPL by as much as 20 points despite playing with a defence that came under regular criticism from the media and fans.

A low-point was the shock defeat in the third-round of the Scottish Cup to First Division Clyde on 8 January 2006. However, the following month his team made history when they beat Dunfermline Athletic 8-1, a record victory margin for the SPL.

Strachan's first season was ultimately successful as he coached Celtic to victory in the Scottish League Cup and, on 5 April 2006, his side clinched the SPL title in record time and with six matches remaining.

Reflecting this achievement, Strachan was voted 'manager of the year' by the Scottish Football Writers' Association 8 days after the title was clinched.

Second season

His second season was even more of a roller coaster compared to his first, with excuses out the window for many, and the arrival of Paul le Guen (PLG) seen by the press as leading “le revolution” at Rangers to challenge us. To the surprise of practically all, there was no actual domestic challenge. Rangers went comedic from failure to tragic farce, and Celtic simply took advantage being over 20 points ahead of them at one point in the season. In Old Firm games, the best PLG did was one draw. The Hearts revolution was also a joke with their challenge petering out before it had even began. Knocked out early in the league cup was no issue, and WGS easily made it up with winning the Scottish Cup to wrap up a double cup and league. Overall, WGS was having a respite domestically.

The Champions league was where its at, and here he excelled. A tough group saw us win all 3 home games, with a special victory against Man U which led us to qualify from the Group stages for the first time! On the other hand, we were pish away from home and lost all 3 games, with WGS stating that he knew the problem and would have it resolved. The next round v AC Milan was very special for us all, and WGS held to what he said and we didn’t concede in 180mins of football, but sadly didn’t score either. Ultimately, we were outdone by a classic goal by Kaka in extra time. A sad way to go out, but a great achievement by WGS and he deserves all the credit in the world.

Regardless of the above, a lot of criticism must also be put at WGS for his second season. The quality of football in the last third of the season was appalling, and the effort was non-existent. Rangers’ new manager (Walter Smith) had the better of WGS with a very comfortable win in the last Old Firm game of the season, but also we lost in some very very drab games.

A number of the signings were also very poor for that season, Gravesen, Miller and Jarosik in particular, whilst Jan Venegoor of Hasselink was injured too often. A spat with Maloney over new contracts saw us lose a great new wee player, and the defense was as bad at the end of the season as at the start. Appeared to bamboozle and patronise fans on many occasions with his team selections, and what appeared to be a continuing spat with Riordan saw the player play few games and being overshadowed by the far less productive Miller. A round of boos as Riordan was taken off in one match late in the season was evidence of this.

Many fans were simply disillusioned by WGS at the end, and putting an end to the rubbish that the fans didn’t like him as he wasn’t a “Celtic man” (lazy journalism), it was all because of the criticisms as I've said above. A real roller coaster of a season.

Third season

• Full 2007-2008 Season review

For WGS, this season has seen him lost the support of the fans, however the death of Tommy Burns and his near breakdown after the loss of the close friend and work colleague showed a side of him which many had not seen before in his time here. We all felt for him and just how much the job and the club meant to him. Winning the league against the odds (Big odds at that!) appears to have moved the fans and split the fans opinion on him whether to stay or go.

This season for WGS can be termed a success on paper. To quote him, the team has achieved this season what he set out at the start of the year to do. On paper, we won the league (three in a row) and we got through the group stages again (two in a row) which cements us as being more than just a flash in the pan side as others in the past have been. We sold Kenny Miler for £3m (amazing!), we bought in a few quality players like Barry Robson, we beat the Huns twice at home in very entertaining games and so on. Adding in that we were seven pts (plus a game played more) behind the huns going into the end of the season, WGS must be given his due even by his harshest critic for leading the team so somehow comeback and win the league! We won our last seven games (which inc 2 wins v the Huns) and got our pride back. That can’t be smirked at by anyone, and the last win came a wee after Tommy Burns death (not an easy time).

At the end of the day though, his style of football was uninspiring and unentertaining, and he seemed to stick with some players way beyond what he should have (e.g. Caldwell, Donatti, JVoH), possibly showing an inability to accept criticism and that he has been wrong. A public rift with Derek Riordan depicted an unsettled atmosphere in the changing room whilst other comments by players like Mark Wilson, Pressley and van Hesselink said otherwise praising WGS for his man management skills. Brining in Robson into the Celtic team seemed to show admission that he needed steel in a lightweight side (and what a change he made to the team), whilst Hartley was a revelation this season and deserves all the praise in the world. Boruc as ever was great, but a kick up the back side was needed as it took him a year to get a game where he didn’t lose a goal away from home.

Allegations were thrown at the Celtic support that we were spoilt (see this story) and that we didn’t like him as he wasn’t a Celtic man! Complete balderdash and its simply sloppy journalism. The fans pay up good wages to watch Celtic and many a time the performances were dreadful to watch with the manager unwilling to admit change was needed and seemed to anger many, esp when he criticised the fans for not understanding what he was trying to do. The zonal play was not working, the formations weren’t working and certain players need a kick up the backside. We lost v Inv Caley when we were two ahead, we lost against Hibs, Motherwell and even struggled in games v Gretna. We lost the first two games v Rangers, with poor tactics amongst others to blame for it. Transfers weren’t working out, esp the enigma that is Donatti. Taking in we’d spent more money than the huns, it was embarrassing to be behind in the league and watching them going upto the end for a very undeserved quadruple.

Adding all this up and WGS has to take the flak, and is deserving of it. However, as said his emotions after Tommy Burns as said showed his real self to us and we all feel for him. In my opinion, this season may have shown him to be more of a coach than a great manager, but unlike the other pundits on television at least he puts his money where his mouth is and takes up the challenge of football management. Moving on to next season he should learn from what has happened and become a full manager.

Must be said, any manager who wins three in a row must be doing something right, so maybe the fans are wrong and he’s right. A late find in Barry Robson have been a revelation, whilst bringing Lennon into the coaching staff has seemed to freshen things up.

Pictures

• Picture Gallery

Articles

• Quotes by and on Gordon Strachan

• Autobiography Extracts (2006)
• WGS attacked by Celtic fan (1980), "Caught in time"
• WGS - Celtic Minded? by BobbyPeru