The return of Brendan Rodgers to Celtic last month delivered us with a double-whammy reminder of the mercenarism that exists in the modern game. Brendan had walked out four years earlier despite selling us the line that he had been “born into Celtic.” Many of us believed that he wanted ‘the ten’ as much as we did, and felt a great sense of betrayal when he prematurely departed for the greater riches offered by Leicester City.
The Irishman replaced Ange Postecoglou, another manager who waxed lyrical about ‘getting’ the ethos of the club and the makeup of our support. Maybe he genuinely did? But this simpatico didn’t prevent him from swapping his woollen Celtic jumper for a Spurs one and following Brendan’s path down to the EPL after just two seasons.
One ex-manager, who never claimed to have an affinity with Celtic prior to arriving at Parkhead in 2005 was ACSOM’s latest live guest, Gordon Strachan. In fact, as a player with Aberdeen, the relationship Gordon had with Celtic fans could be best described as volatile. So volatile, in fact, that he was attacked as a Dons player on the field of play no less than twice by Celtic supporters.
Attacked on the park!
On 8th November 1980, during a 2-0 home defeat to reigning League champions Aberdeen, Celtic fan, John Poderis (21), made his way on to the Celtic Park pitch to target an assault on Strachan, who was grabbed by the neck and thrown to the ground by his attacker. Poderis also threatened to kill the Scottish internationalist during the bizarre incident which resulted in a £140 fine and life-time ban for the perpetrator.
In an interview with the Sunday Mail 25 years after the incident, at the time of Strachan’s unveiling as Celtic manager, Poderis reflected on the moment he invaded the park:
“It was a spur-of-the-moment thing to run on the pitch caused by having too much to drink,” claimed Poderis. “I only have vague memories of attacking Gordon Strachan. The players restrained me and then the cops came on and dragged me off the pitch. It is all a bit of blur really.”
According to Gordon, when he was reminded about this assault at his event with ACSOM, the players that intervened did not include his future Celtic companions Danny McGrain or Tommy Burns, despite them being close to the flash-point. Their failure to back him up became the subject of mild but regular ribbing during Gordon’s first three seasons as manager at Celtic.
That approach is typical of Strachan, who, when asked in 2005 about the unsavoury episode, responded:
“It was great – one of the highlights of my career, that… they had a whip round in the pub and gave him (Poderis) £200. He ended up with more than my win bonus.”
Round two!
If the 1980 attack wasn’t bad enough, it happened again the following season at Pittodrie after Strachan scored a penalty past Pat Bonner to put Aberdeen a goal up. Having celebrated with a summersault, Gordon was confronted by a Celtic supporter who made a beeline for the Dons’ #7 before being wrestled to the ground by a posse of Aberdeen players.
It would be a safe assumption to make, then, that by the 1984 Scottish Cup final between Celtic and Aberdeen, there was no love lost between Alex Ferguson’s red-haired midfielder and the Celtic faithful who made up the near-60,000 Hampden Park attendance that day.
With this in mind, and with future Celtic striker, Mark McGhee, making the most of a Roy Aitken challenge six minutes before half-time, Strachan decided to furiously remonstrate to referee Bob Valentine on behalf of his supposedly injured best mate. The result was a sensational sending-off for Aitken and a genuine reason for Celtic fans to dislike Gordon Strachan.
Celtic went on to lose that final 2-1 after extra time (with McGee scoring the winner), but the decision to send Aitken off was a harsh one, and may have made it into the dossier of poor refereeing decisions that were cited by the Celtic captain upon his departure from Scottish football in 1990.
Return to Paradise
Before he left Celtic after 15 years, Aitken was rightly rewarded for his loyalty with a testimonial match in 1987. Like the controversial Scottish Cup final three years previously, Celtic’s opponents for Roy’s special night were managed by Alex Ferguson, who by this time was the gaffer at Manchester United. And guess who else travelled up from Old Trafford to take part in the game? Celtic fans’ apparent nemesis, Gordon Strachan, who had moved to Manchester in 1984 after the Scottish Cup final.
If Aitken was incensed at Strachan’s antics in his final Aberdeen match before switching to English football, the bad blood seemed to flow in just one direction, according to Strachan’s pre-match comments:
“What a man he (Aitken) is. We fall out on the park but always seem to finish up going out shopping together on international trips. Big Roy is a great guy. Sure, we go at each other in matches and we’ll certainly be doing so in his testimonial.
“Roy’s a winner. So am I. We’ve lost a couple of matches with United and the manager is far from happy. So we’ve got to do something. What I will say is that no player deserves this kind of match more than Roy. But we’ll be at each other’s throats during the 90 minutes.”
What Gordon said next was very telling, particularly when you consider that he would end up as Celtic manager 18 years after uttering these words:
“I’ve always been given a bit of a tousing at Parkhead. Once, in fact, I was attacked by a fan.”
“But, believe me, I think the Celtic supporters are the greatest.”
“They really get behind Celtic and, though they’ve given me the bird often, I accept this as a professional.”
The fact that Gordon wasn’t saying these words to curry favour on the steps of Celtic Park many years later is an important one. He was saying it as a Manchester United player who had been attacked twice on the park by Celtic fans, yet he still had respect for our fanbase. He had more cause than most not to offer any positive words about us, but he still did.
Strachan is a manager who, I feel, is often underappreciated. We laud the glories of Rodgers and Postecoglou, and rightly so, but their Scottish predecessor never attempted to hoodwink us like some of the others. He came in without any promises of undying love for the club, but won us 3 league titles, 3 cups, and progressed to the last 16 of the Champions League twice in succession.
After four seasons in charge, Gordon departed with a leaving speech, and it summed up the man perfectly:
“I wasn’t going to pretend I came here as a Celtic supporter. I don’t believe in kissing badges to get your support. I didn’t know the words of Athenry. But I now know what it’s like to be a Celtic supporter, because I am one now.”
On Friday night at Barras Art & Design, Gordon Strachan joined ACSOM live on-stage in front of a sold-out audience. He was hilarious (which we have come to expect), but what also came across was his genuine love for Celtic Football Club and our fans.
Perhaps I wasn’t a Gordon Strachan fan when he arrived as manager in 2005, but I am most definitely one now.
Paul John Dykes
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