IN THE future we may all be a little slower to jump to conclusions now that Celtic have done what we, the press, and they, the supporters, said could not be done by winning the championship.
From a position of despair and rancour in late March an
d early April to Thursday night's glory, from Kevin Thomson's winner on a dark day at Ibrox to Derek Riordan's hatchet job and on to the bitter defeat to 10-man Motherwell, from the barracking of Gordon Strachan by his own supporters utterly sold on the idea of Rangers having taken their title away from them to the sweet serenading of Tannadice, we have seen some turnaround.
It's been a remarkable ride, the last dizzying act being the appreciation of the manager that came pouring out of the stands the other night. Friends now, are they? Those things they said, those spiteful, hateful things, all forgotten now? You'd like to hear what Strachan has to say about that. Has he forgiven those who have called for his head, who have booed his substitutions and screamed abuse in his face? Does he think that he's won over these people now? Converted them all with a third title? Banished the belligerence for good?
The latest word has it that Strachan is staying put. Whether this is just wishful thinking from the dressing room and the board room is still open to some debate and will continue to be until such time as Strachan does what he has singularly failed to do thus far and reveal his intentions.
That may take a while yet. Strachan, as we know, is a complex man. Sometimes you get the impression that Peter Lawwell, John Reid and Dermot Desmond know as little about the inner workings of their manager's brain as the ordinary Joe on the street. Lawwell says planning has already begun for next season and that Strachan is playing a full part in the process. By that he's assuming that he is going nowhere. Perhaps. But still we wait for confirmation from the man himself.
In fairness to him, there is much to ponder. The love-in at Tannadice was just a moment in time, he'll know that much. Given his extraordinary achievements in his three seasons, Strachan warrants a place in the heart of every Celtic fan but he hasn't got that. Not yet. Possibly not ever. The truth is that the disapproval remains (buried for now) and it will come up to the surface again given an opportunity.
A bad pre-season, an iffy start to the SPL, a stumble in Europe, an early defeat to Rangers. Any of those things could trigger a return of those charming songs we heard only seven weeks ago when, paraphrasing here, a noisy chunk of the Celtic support saw their team lose to Motherwell and promptly requested that Strachan, er, remove himself from office, pronto.
There are many illustrations of this twisted relationship. Last season, with Celtic in an unassailable position at the top of the SPL, they went to the scene of Thursday night's joyous denouement and conceded a late goal to draw 1-1 with Dundee United. The visiting fans went apoplectic at Strachan as he made his way up the touchline at the end. They berated him viciously and then turned to face the glass-fronted press box and berated us for not berating him. It was like a coursing festival with Strachan cast in the role of the hare. This from a set of fans that were about to win a second title.
Strachan has been badly treated by his own supporters for too long and only an innocent would say that Thursday obliterated all the ill will.
The manager may have entered a world of fantasy at Tannadice but he doesn't live with his head in the clouds. He was only a day-tripper, only passing through. He's a sharp man and a realist. Assessing the SPL season with honesty he may accept that good fortune was with him. That disallowed goal of Aberdeen's, that offside strike in the last Old Firm game, the last-minute reprieve in the Old Firm game before that, the nine points Rangers dropped in the SPL matches that directly followed their tiring UEFA Cup nights, the Rangers' injury list, the loss of Steven Naismith that left Walter Smith's side denuded of wit and width in the run-in.
Having been denied two titles in agonising fashion in recent seasons Celtic were due a break. They might feel they were owed this one. But as sure as talent and spirit played a part in their revival, it would be a blind man who would argue that luck had no say in their glory. That's the game though, isn't it? Luck comes and goes. It's best to acknowledge its role in Celtic's rise first, however.
A theory did the rounds earlier in the season about Strachan's mindset come the summer. It had it that Strachan would resign if he won a third title. It was based on the old stage adage of get off while the going's good and leave them wanting more. The flaw in the argument centred around what Strachan was supposed to do with himself once he left Parkhead. He's too young to retire and too in love with the game to spend the rest of his career in a television studio.
What were his options in management? One of the big four in England? Not likely. An Everton or a Spurs or a Manchester City or a Newcastle? Improbable in the case of the first three. The Geordies, perhaps, but you sense they're not going to give up on King Kev all that easily down there. How about the lower reaches of the Premiership or the upper echelons of the Championship? Been there, done it, gave it up as a bad lot. The Continent? He's never spoken of a desire to manage abroad.
There are parts of the Celtic job he detests, people like us in the press who he'd rather not spend time with, people such as the boo brigade among the supporters who he views with contempt. But all that included, the gig still ticks more boxes than any other he could hope to get. Remember, success in Scotland uproots no trees in England. The best Martin O'Neill could do after his heroics with Celtic was with struggling Aston Villa, the plum job for Alex McLeish was at doomed Birmingham. Would Strachan really be excited by operating at that level again even if it came with some normality?
One of the more instructive things from Thursday was the passion with which his players spoke of him. For a long time now there has been talk about how unpopular Strachan is with his squad but you couldn't detect anything but warmth and appreciation in the words of his players.
"He has defended me in press conferences, but I think he does that with all the lads," gushed Gary Caldwell, just one of the team that lauded the manager. "There's been more players than me who've taken stick at times (from the press and the fans] but he sticks by them and keeps instilling the belief in you and the mental strength that you can keep going.
"That's all you can ask of your manager, to keep you believing. I think the faith he has in his players is a great quality. It would be quite easy for managers when things are going wrong and people are having a go to just drop you or change things around. He sticks by you. He's never shown the pressure. I think that's the measure of the man.
"I don't know how he does it but he deflects all the criticism that comes his way. There's far too much of it and he deals with it tremendously well. He's a great manager to have."
If Strachan is about to launch himself into another season at Parkhead he'll do so with a dedicated squad and the comfort of a guaranteed place in the Champions League and all that lovely loot that comes with it.
He'll surely have a half decent wad of cash to spend in the summer.
Seven weeks ago many Celtic people would have recoiled in horror at the thought of him being trusted with the family silver again, the expensive errors of Massimo Donati and Thomas Gravesen still fresh in their one-track minds. There was little balance in their assessment, little credit given for the fantastic pieces of business that brought Artur Boruc, Scott McDonald, Shunsuke Nakamura, Paul Hartley and Barry Robson to the club.
They'll salute him now, of course, but the doubters haven't gone away. Neither, it would appear, has Strachan. How long will it be before bitterness breaks out again in the stands? Before the year is out, you'd wager. That, though, is the life he has chosen. He won another title during the week but he's not so gullible to think that he's won over all of the people despite their current hymns of praise.
TITLE NUMBER CRUNCHING by
Andrew Smith
- RANGERS dropped 15 points in their last nine league games… after winning all 15 of their previous matches in the championship, their longest such run since 1972-73.
- THE 68 games played by Rangers this season is a record for a Scottish club. The 19 European ties they played to reach the UEFA Cup final is also a record for continental outings by a team from this country in a single campaign. In 1986-87 Dundee United played 67 games, their run to the two-legged final of the UEFA Cup accounting for 12 of those matches. United also reached the Scottish Cup final that season.
- A BOOKING may have turned the title race. If not for a caution picked up by Celtic's Scott Brown as Rangers won the second derby of the season on March 29 at Ibrox, it is open to question whether Gordon Strachan would have broken up the central midfield partnership between the £4m signing from Hibs and £3m Italian Massimo Donati. Both played in the 1-0 defeat at home to Motherwell the next Saturday, an encounter that Barry Robson and Paul Hartley started on the bench. But with Brown suspended for the back-to-back Old Firm games at Celtic Park that followed, Robson was paired with Hartley as Strachan's side claimed a derby double to re-ignite their title hopes. The duo were then instrumental to Celtic going on a seven-game winning run to snatch the title.
- CELTIC have secured a trio of consecutive championships three times previously in their history. On each occasion they have gone on to make it four in a row. Strachan follows in the footsteps of Willie Maley, who led the club to six titles between 1905 and 1910 and four between 1914 and 1917, and Jock Stein, whose all-conquering side racked up nine between 1966 and 1974.
- ON EACH of the past two occasions that there has been a three-in-a-row title success in Scottish football, it has been the precursor to a nine-title run. Between 1989 and 1997 Rangers, through Graeme Souness and Walter Smith, equalled Stein's record.
- CELTIC dropped nine points in December, starting at Hearts on the first day of the month when Andrius Velicka equalised with a last-minute penalty in the 1-1 draw. A last-minute goal from Derek Riordan gave Celtic a 1-1 draw at home a week later against St Mirren. Eight days after that two goals from Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink presented them with a two-goal lead at Inverness Caley Thistle, but the Highlanders came back to win 3-2. Jiri Jarosik got the equaliser in the 1-1 draw with Hibs at Parkhead a week later. He now plays for Russian outfit Krylia Sovetov.
- SEVEN of the nine points Celtic dropped in December came when reserve goalkeeper Mark Brown deputised for the injured first choice No.1 Artur Boruc, against St Mirren (1-1), Inverness Caledonian Thistle (2-3) and Hibs (1-1).
The full article contains 2056 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
