I had the great fortune this week to spend a few hours in the company of Dons and Scotland legend, Gordon Strachan.
We were recording an interview for an upcoming product launch, the venue a hidden gem of a Mexican taco restaurant in the Finnieston area of Glasgow. Given Gordon’s most high-profile goal for his country, and the iconic celebration after netting against West Germany at Mexico 86, it was the perfect choice.
He was in a relaxed frame of mind, and chatted amiably and comfortably with the restaurant staff and film crew. But he really came to life when the cameras started rolling and we began a wander through his long and highly successful career.
What shone through, as it always does when I have these chats with Gordon, is his enduring love of football, the people he has met through the game, and the opportunities it has presented him.
After half a century immersed in it, he might be forgiven for feeling a little jaded or cynical, but far from it.
He definitely has his issues with certain aspects of the game, but in the main he retains his childhood love and fascination for the sport, which he sees as “the best business in the world”.
Inevitably, part of the conversation was about his glorious spell at Pittodrie, and his, at times, fractious relationship with the man he calls the best manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson.
With Gordon being the kind of character he is, it was never going to be plain sailing between those two, but any rifts were quickly forgotten and have long since healed, and as he recalled the many bursts of ‘the hairdryer treatment’ he was subjected to, a warm smile illuminated his face, he sighed contentedly, and admitted: “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
Without in any way diminishing the value or importance of the medals, trophies, and caps he won, Gordon made it clear they are not what he most treasures.
He knows where they are, still takes pride in his achievements, both individually and as a key member of some brilliant sides, but they will not be his main abiding memory.
Rather, Strachan says, it will be the friendships struck, the laughs he shared, that will always be the most important thing he takes from the game.
Get him on the subject of the late Tommy Burns, and he can talk for hours. He still thinks of ‘Tam’ every day, still remembers the many occasions when he was left in stitches, often at the least appropriate moments.
Like the time in the Nou Camp when the outstanding Barcelona team of Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, et al were putting his Celtic team to the sword and Burns wandered along beside him at the edge of the technical area, covered his mouth, and whispered, “Do you want me to see if there’s a trapdoor at the back of the dugout?”
We all want to see our team winning, we want silverware, we want success; but perhaps we all take the game a bit too seriously at times.
A couple of hours in the company of Gordon Strachan, listening to his stories, hearing him laugh, was a welcome reminder that football can be a positive, unifying force, irrespective of the score on matchday.
Tough nights ahead in group stages
Rangers deserve great credit for another superb result in midweek, just the latest in a line of remarkable European victories for Giovanni van Bronckhorst since taking over at Ibrox.
They have done it the hard way, coming from 2-0 down to St Gilloise, then having to win in Eindhoven, and now, for the first time in 15 years, both Glasgow clubs will be in the group stages of the Champions League.
It is only the third time that has happened in the competition’s history.
Tough nights lie ahead, and the prospect of some heavy defeats for both, but you have to be prepared to take it on the chin when you’re mixing with the big boys.
Of the two, Rangers have more recent experience of success – they have beaten Champions League quality teams like Dortmund, Leipzig and PSV – and that might help in the coming months.
