Gordon Strachan

This page is about the footballer and manager. Gordon C. Strachan was indicted in the Watergate scandal

Gordon Strachan
Personal information
Full name	Gordon David Strachan
Date of birth	9 February 1957 (1957-02-09) (age 52)
Place of birth	Edinburgh, Scotland
Height	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Celtic (Manager)
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1971–1977 1977–1984 1984–1989 1989–1995 1995–1997	Dundee Aberdeen Manchester United Leeds United Coventry City Total	069 0(13) 183 0(55) 160 0(33) 197 0(37) 026 00(0) 635 (138)
National team
1980–1992	Scotland	050 00(5)
Teams managed
1996–1997 1997–2001 2001–2004 2005–	Coventry City (player-manager) Coventry City Southampton Celtic
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Gordon David Strachan (IPA: [/strɔ:n/]) OBE (born 9 February 1957, in Edinburgh) is a retired Scottish football player, and is now a football manager.

He is currently manager of Celtic, a role that he has held since 2005 and has seen him guide them to Scottish Premier League title in each of his three seasons in charge. Earlier in his managerial career he had less successful spells with Coventry City and then Southampton in England.

As a footballer, he turned out for Dundee, Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and finally Coventry City.

He also won 50 international caps for Scotland and is a member of the Scotland Football Hall of Fame. Strachan was an aggressive, skilful, right-sided midfield player and is the father of Craig Strachan and Gavin Strachan, also footballers.

Club career

He started his career at Dundee where he was their youngest ever captain, but it wasn't until he was signed by Aberdeen in November 1977 that he came to prominence. With the famous Aberdeen team of the 1980s, one of the few sides to break the traditional dominance of the Old Firm in Scottish football, he won two Scottish League titles, three Scottish Cups, the European Cup Winners' Cup and the European Super Cup under the management of Sir Alex Ferguson.

In August 1984, Manchester United spent £500,000 to take him to Old Trafford in August. He was initially successful, contributing massively to their FA Cup victory over Everton in 1985, but gradually began to suffer a loss in form and eventually lost his place as a regular first team player.

Leeds United manager Howard Wilkinson came to the rescue in March 1989, when he paid £200,000 for Strachan's services. The transfer fee soon paid dividends as Strachan's strong form resulted in Leeds winning the Second Division title in 1990 and gaining promotion to the First Division after an eight-year exile. The following season he helped Leeds finish fourth in the First Division and Strachan was voted Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year. A year later, he was instrumental in Leeds overtaking Manchester United to win the 1991-92 League Championship title in the last ever season of the old Football League before the creation of the FA Premier League. Strachan continued to be a competent and regular first-team player as Leeds enjoyed mixed fortunes during their first three seasons of the Premiership, although he was sometimes kept out of the side by back problems.

Gordon Strachan remained at Leeds United until March 1995, when he moved to Coventry City to work as player-coach under new manager Ron Atkinson. Strachan was not a regular first-team player at Highfield Road, but he helped coach the club's players to a high enough standard to escape relegation from the Premiership in 1995-96.

International career

Strachan had a fruitful International career which included 5 goals. He appeared in two FIFA World Cups - in 1982 and 1986 - and it was in the latter that he scored his most famous International goal, a cross shot against West Germany in Scotland's second match of the tournament in Queretaro, Mexico. His celebration was unique and comical too, as he attempted to vault the advertising hoarding, his relatively small height made it difficult if not impossible, so he merely rested his right leg on it as his team-mates joined him in celebrating.

Early career as a manager

Coventry City

When Ron Atkinson became Coventry City's Director of Football in November 1996, Gordon Strachan was promoted to the manager's seat. He finally retired as a player at the end of the season after making his last appearance at the age of 40, at the time a record in the English Premiership. Strachan also helped the Sky Blues pull off perhaps the most unlikely relegation survival in Premiership history. After losing their penultimate Premiership game, it looked as though their 30-year top flight tenancy had come to an end. But thanks to a victory on the final day, a draw for Middlesbrough (who had been deducted 3 points by the F.A) and a defeat for Sunderland, they pulled off a miracle survival. Strachan kept Coventry safe from relegation 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.

Southampton

Gordon Strachan returned to management within weeks, taking the manager's job at Premiership strugglers Southampton - who had sacked manager Stuart Gray after a terrible start to their first season at the new St Mary's Stadium. Most pundits had already written them off come Strachan's appointment in October 2001, but he turned round their Premiership fortunes and they finished 11th in the Premiership. The Saints progressed further 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

A break from management

In March 2004, Gordon Strachan announced his resignation as Southampton manager. He had earlier announced his intention not to renew his contract when it expired at the end of the 2003-04 season, but resigned even earlier than intended because he wanted to spend time with his family.

Later that year, when Berti Vogts stepped down as Scottish national coach, Strachan was widely tipped to take over. But the job went to Walter Smith instead. He was even linked with the manager's job at Portsmouth, neighbours of his former club Southampton, but turned down the offer to take over.

Instead Strachan analysed football matches for the media, most notably alongside Adrian Chiles 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.^[1][2]

Return to Scotland

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). For 2005-06, his stated aim was to regain the SPL title from 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. The loss against Artmedia meant that Celtic suffered an early exit from European competition, despite winning the return match 4-0.

After this disastrous start, Celtic started 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 later [2].

The following year Strachan restructed the team and made a series of signings, bringing in players such as Hibernian's Derek Riordan, Chelsea's Jiri Jarosik, Lee Naylor from Wolverhampton, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink from PSV, Thomas Gravesen from Real Madrid and both Paul Hartley and Steven Pressley from Hearts. Celtic flourished, and by mid-January 2007 held a 17 point lead in the SPL standings.

Champions League football again returned to Celtic Park as well, the team having automatically qualified for the group stages and being drawn alongside Benfica, FC Kobenhavn and Manchester United. Home victories against all three Group F members saw the team progress to the final 16 of the Champions League for the first time since the competition was re-formatted in 1993. Celtic lost the tie, against eventual winners A.C. Milan, missing out in a place in the quarter finals.

On 22 April 2007 Strachan guided Celtic to their 41st league championship, and second in succession. A 2-1 victory against Kilmarnock ^[3] left Celtic 13 points clear of Rangers with four matches remaining. Later that day Strachan was recognised as the inaugural Scottish PFA Manager of the Year for 2007. Celtic then went on to win the SFA Cup, beating Dunfermline.

And in the 2007-08 season, Strachan was able to lead Celtic into the 2nd round of the Champions League again after beating AC Milan,SL Benfica and Shaktar Donetsk.However by April there was a lot of criticism from the press and the fans after the 1-0 loss to Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup 1/4 finals and the 1-0 loss to 10 man Motherwell FC. But Strachan was to prove the critics wrong again and after beating Rangers twice at home, on 22 May 2008, Strachan became only the third ever Celtic manager to guide the club to three consecutive Scottish league titles.

Management Style

Typically playing a traditional 4-4-2 formation, and very occasionally 4-5-1, Strachan is widely known for his rigorous management style, ^[4]and admits to watching video replays of his club's games two, sometimes three times.^[5] He also places great emphasis on player health and fitness, forbidding his players to drink alcohol excessively or regularly, and often giving dietary advice to his players - attributing his own longevity as a player to a strict and somewhat unusual diet involving seaweed. Players such as Scotland international Gary Caldwell have attributed their success at Celtic to lifestyle changes enforced by Strachan.^[6]

FIFA/SOS Ambassador for Scotland

Gordon Strachan was appointed as the official FIFA/SOS Ambassador for Scotland, joining Wayne Rooney (Ambassador for England), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Netherlands), and fifty others in fund raising for the official 2006 FIFA World Cup Charity.^[7]

Career statistics

Managerial stats

As of 05:34, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Coventry City		5 November 1996	10 September 2001	215	70	89	56	32.55
Southampton		22 October 2001	13 February 2004	110	39	39	32	35.45
Celtic		25 May 2005	Present	139	94	24	21	67.62

Honours

As a player

Aberdeen

• Scottish Premier Division winner: 1979–80 and 1983–84
• Scottish Cup winner: 1982, 1983 and 1984
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup winner: 1983
• UEFA Super Cup winner: 1983
• Scottish League Cup runner-up: 1978–79, 1979–80

Manchester United

• FA Cup winner: 1985
• Football League First Division runner-up: 1987–88

Leeds United

• Football League Second Division winner: 1989–90
• Football League First Division winner: 1991–92
• FA Charity Shield winner: 1992

As a manager

Southampton

• FA Cup runner-up: 2003

Celtic

• Scottish Premier League winner: 2005–06, 2006–07 and 2007–08
• Scottish Cup winner: 2007
• Scottish League Cup winner: 2006
• SPFA Manager of the Year: 2005–06 and 2006–07

References

External links

• Gordon Strachan career stats at Soccerbase
• Gordon Strachan management career stats at Soccerbase

Links to related articles Awards and achievements Preceded by John Barnes Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year 1991 Succeeded by Gary Lineker Sporting positions Preceded by Mark Aizlewood Leeds United Captain 1989-1994 Succeeded by Gary McAllister SFWA Footballer of the Year 1965: McNeill | 1966: Greig | 1967: Simpson | 1968: Wallace | 1969: Murdoch | 1970: Stanton | 1971: Buchan | 1972: Smith | 1973: Connelly | 1974: Scotland | 1975: Jardine | 1976: Greig | 1977: McGrain | 1978: Johnstone | 1979: Ritchie | 1980: Strachan | 1981: Rough | 1982: Sturrock | 1983: Nicholas | 1984: Miller | 1985: McAlpine | 1986: Jardine | 1987: McClair | 1988: McStay | 1989: Gough | 1990: McLeish | 1991: Malpas | 1992: McCoist | 1993: Goram | 1994: Hateley | 1995: Laudrup | 1996: Gascoigne | 1997: Laudrup | 1998: Burley | 1999: Larsson | 2000: Ferguson | 2001: Larsson | 2002: Lambert | 2003: Ferguson | 2004: McNamara | 2005: Hartson | 2006: Gordon | 2007: Nakamura | 2008: Cuéllar SFWA Manager of the Year 1987: McLean | 1988: McNeill | 1989: Souness | 1990: Roxburgh | 1991: Totten | 1992: Smith | 1993: Smith | 1994: Smith | 1995: Nicholl | 1996: Smith | 1997: Smith | 1998: Jansen | 1999: Advocaat | 2000: Advocaat | 2001: O'Neill | 2002: O'Neill | 2003: McLeish | 2004: O'Neill | 2005: Mowbray | 2006: Strachan | 2007: Strachan | 2008: Smith PFA Scotland Manager of the Year 2007: Strachan | 2008: Reid Scotland squad – 1982 FIFA World Cup 1 Rough • 2 McGrain • 3 Gray • 4 Souness • 5 Hansen • 6 Miller • 7 Strachan • 8 Dalglish • 9 Brazil • 10 Wark • 11 Robertson • 12 Wood • 13 McLeish • 14 Narey • 15 Jordan • 16 Hartford • 17 Evans • 18 Archibald • 19 Sturrock • 20 Provan • 21 Burley • 22 Leighton • Coach: Stein Scotland squad – 1986 FIFA World Cup 1 Leighton • 2 Gough • 3 Malpas • 4 Souness • 5 McLeish • 6 Miller • 7 Strachan • 8 Aitken • 9 Bannon • 10 Bett • 11 McStay • 12 Goram • 13 Nicol • 14 Narey • 15 Albiston • 16 McAvennie • 17 Archibald • 18 Sharp • 19 Nicholas • 20 Sturrock • 21 Cooper • 22 Rough • Coach: Ferguson Coventry City F.C. – Managers Stanley (secretary) (1883–85) • Hathaway (secretary) (1885–87) • Morgan (secrrtary) (1887–92) • Kirk (secretary) (1893–??) • Maley (secretary) (1893–??) • Collins (secretary) (1893–95) • Cashmore (secretary) (1895–1900) • Newhall (secretary) (1900–02) • O'Shea (secretary) (1902–05) • Beaman (secretary) (1905–08) • Harris (scertary) (1908–09) • Buckle (1909–10) • Wallace (1910–13) • Scott-Walford (1913–15) • Howard (caretaker) (1915–17) • Clayton (1919) • Pollitt (1919–20) • Evans (1920–24) • Harbourne (caretaker) (1924) • Kerr (1924–28) • McIntyre (1928–31) • Slade (caretaker) (1931) • Storer (1931–45) • Bayliss (1945–47) • Frith (1947–48) • Storer (1948–53) • Fairbrother (1953–54) • Elliott (caretaker) (1954–55) • Carver (1955–56) • Raynor (1956) • Warren (1956–57) • Frith (1957–61) • Hill (1961–67) • Cantwell (1967–72) • Dennison (caretaker) (1972) • Mercer (1972–74) • Milne (1974–81) • Sexton (1981–83) • Gould (1983–84) • Mackay (1984–86) • Curtis (1986–87) • Sillett (1987–90) • Butcher (1990–92) • Howe (caretaker) (1992) • Gould (1992–93) • Neal (1993–95) • Atkinson (1995–96) • Strachan (1996–01) • Nilsson (2001–02) • Peake (caretaker) (2002) • McAllister (2002–03) • Black (2003–04) • Ogrizovic (caretaker) (2004) • Reid (2004–05) • Heath (caretaker) (2005) • Adams (2005–07) • Heath (caretaker) (2007) • Dowie (2007–08) • Harbin and Bunn (caretakers) (2008) • Coleman (2008–) Southampton F.C. – Managers Knight (1894–95s) • Robson (1895–97s) • Arnfield (1897–1911s) • Swift (1911–12) • Arnfield (1912–19s) • McIntyre (1919–24) • Goss (1924–1925s) • Chadwick (1925–31) • Kay (1931–36) • Goss (1936–37) • Parker (1937–43) • Dominy (1943–46) • Dodgin (1946–49) • Cann (1949–51) • Roughton (1952–55) • Bates (1955–73) • McMenemy (1973–85) • Nicholl (1985–91) • Branfoot (1991–94) • Ball (1994–95) • Merrington (1995–96) • Souness (1996–97) • Jones (1997–2000) • Hoddle (2000–01) • Gray (2001) • Strachan (2001–04) • Sturrock (2004) • Wigley (2004) • Redknapp (2004–05) • Bassett & Wise (2005c) • Burley (2005–08) • Gorman & Dodd (2008c) • Pearson (2008) • Poortvliet (2008–) (s) secretary (c) caretaker Celtic F.C. – Managers Maley (1897–1940) • McStay (1940–1945) • McGrory (1945–1965) • Stein (1965–1978) • McNeill (1978–1983) • Hay (1983–1987) • McNeill (1987–1991) • Brady (1991–1993) • Macari (1993–1994) • Burns (1994–1997) • Jansen (1997–1998) • Vengloš (1998–1999) • Barnes (1999–2000) • Dalglish (2000) • O'Neill (2000–2005) • Strachan (2005–)