Wha's like us… Gordon Strachan

WHILE the front and back pages were dominated last week by the violence in Manchester, football was also rocked by the untimely death of Tommy Burns. Pat Nevin pays homage to the Celtic great in our Sports section today, and Burns will be missed by all who knew him and thousands who did not. In the midst of the shock and grief that met the announcement that Burns had finally succumbed to cancer, much was said and done in his memory.

But there was no more poignant moment than when Celtic's current manager, Gordon Strachan, spoke of the loss of a man who had become a dear friend. As he did so, tears swelled in his eyes and poured down his cheeks.

In an age in which it is still deemed somehow unmanly for a Scotsman to cry in public, especially one who has devoted their life to the masculine game of football, it was remarkable to see such honest and raw emotion on show.

Strachan's tears were also, more than anything else, a genuine and unspoken tribute to a good man taken too soon from his family.