Gordon Strachan and his incredible future Celtic colony at Coventry!…
There was one last hurrah for Gordon Strachan at Leeds, as he led his side back up the table to finish fifth in 1993/94. However, he then fell out of the first team picture the following season, accepting an offer from his old Manchester United boss Ron Atkinson to become his assistant and eventual successor at Coventry City in March 1995.
With Gordon also remaining in a playing role, his new club would finish just above the relegation slots a few weeks later and would again cling onto their Premier status the following year, albeit only just, seven goals better off than – almost unbelievable to consider today – Manchester City.
With Coventry back in the drop-zone again in November 1996, the planned succession kicked in a few months early, Strachan taking the hotseat in a player/manager capacity whilst Atkinson moved upstairs to a Director of Football role. Recently-sacked Hibernian boss Alex Miller came in as assistant manager, whilst skipper Gary McAllister had followed his new manager’s path earlier in the season, moving to Coventry from Leeds.
The Scottish duo of Strachan and Miller would lead the Sky Blues to yet another great escape in May 1997, finishing a single point ahead of relegated Sunderland, after an incredible late winning run which included unlikely victories at Anfield, White Hart Lane and at home to Chelsea, whilst their closest rivals faltered. Even with those results, Coventry only survived due to a three-point deduction imposed on Middlesbrough for a late fixture cancellation.
Future Celtic striker Dion Dublin scored in all three of those games, including an injury-time winner in Liverpool, whilst his manager made history against a Stamford Bridge side featuring another soon-to-be Celt – Craig Burley – and current Scotland manager Steve Clarke. At 40 years and 59 days, Gordon Strachan became the oldest outfield player to start an English Premier League match.
His renowned ‘bananas and yoghurt’ diet had enabled him to play well beyond the normal career expectancy of his fellow top-flight footballers. He had come a long way from the naïve teenager caught having had one too many with Jimmy Johnstone all those years ago, whilst the pair were team-mates under Tommy Gemmell at Dundee.
In addition to Dion Dublin, Gordon Strachan’s spell at Coventry saw him play with or manage several other players who would later join him at Celtic. Steven Pressley left Highfield Road for Dundee United in July 1995, whilst Jonathan Gould – the back-up keeper to Steve Ogrizovic – joined Bradford City on a free transfer at the end of that campaign and Paul Telfer, a midfielder signed from Luton Town for £1.15m at the start of the 1995/96 season, linked up with Gordon as he would at several other clubs in the future.
Edinburgh-born Telfer would gain his only full international cap whilst under the Scot’s regime at Coventry, appearing against France at Hampden in March 2000. Four years earlier, on 8 April 1996, he had been replaced by former Aberdeen striker Eoin Jess, a recent £2m signing, at Old Trafford, on the day that Sky Blues’ defender Dave Busst suffered the worst leg injury I have ever seen.
Some three years later, I watched in horror in Lyon as Henrik Larsson suffered what appeared to be a similar break on the wet turf of the Stade Gerland. Fate would treat both differently. Whilst Celtic’s King of Kings made a full recovery, and would actually go on to even greater things, sadly the unfortunate Busst would never play football again.
Alex Miller was influential in bringing his former Hibernian star Michael O’Neill to Highfield Road in the close season of 1996. The Portadown man would spend two years there, making only a handful of appearances. Twenty years later, he and Strachan would be colleagues and rivals as international managers on opposite sides of the Irish Sea.
READ THIS…The Celtic Exchange Podcast – Matt Corr talks Majic, Stan and the King of Japan
O’Neill was heavily tipped to succeed Gordon as Scotland manager in 2018, however, he chose to stay in Ireland. Strachan’s former Pittodrie team-mate Alex McLeish was then appointed to the Hampden post, for what would prove to be a brief and rather cruel tenure. Miller himself only remained in the Number 2 role at Coventry for 12 months, replacing former Celtic captain Roy Aitken as the manager of Aberdeen in November 1997.
Following an unsuccessful year at Pittodrie, rather bizarrely he re-appeared at Anfield in 1999 as Director of Scouting, enjoying triple cup success under Gerard Houllier in 2001 – having linked up again there with Gary McAllister – before sampling Champions League and FA Cup glory on the coaching staff under Rafael Benitez.
Alex Miller’s departure from Coventry would see the start of Gordon Strachan’s working partnership with former Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion defender Garry Pendrey. Whilst the two men share a birthday – Pendrey the elder by eight years – the origins of the friendship are less clear. Pendrey was certainly moving in West Midlands coaching circles in the late 1980’s, working at Walsall and Wolverhampton Wanderers before returning to his former St Andrew’s stomping ground as manager. He would be Strachan’s new right-hand man at Highfield Road, a relationship which would continue all the way to the East End of Glasgow and beyond.
Swedish international goalkeeper Magnus Hedman joined Coventry City on a free transfer from AIK Solna in July 1997, as Eoin Jess headed back to Aberdeen for one third of his original purchase fee. Hedman spent five seasons at the club, before joining Martin O’Neill’s Scandinavian colony at Celtic in August 2002.
One of Gordon Strachan’s youth prospects at Highfield Road had also, inadvertently, played his way into the Celtic story. Craig Faulconbridge spent much of 1998 on loan to Dunfermline Athletic, scoring only one goal in his two spells at the Fife club. It was a significant goal though. His looping header for the Pars in the 83rd minute at East End Park on Sunday, 3 May 1998 meant that Simon Donnelly’s first-half strike would not clinch Celtic’s first League title in a decade as Wim Jansen’s exciting side sought to preserve Jock Stein’s precious legacy.
It also ruined the family party we were enjoying on my godson’s 15th birthday back in Lenzie. Instead, we would have to endure another five days of torture then Pampers Saturday, before Henrik and Harald scored against St Johnstone to stop the dreaded 10.
Donnelly’s fellow Hoops striker Darren Jackson had been dropped by Jansen for the Dunfermline clash, following a goalless draw with his former side Hibernian at Celtic Park the previous week. He would be literally ‘sent to Coventry’ during 1998/99, making three League appearances on loan under Gordon Strachan at Highfield Road. Jackson’s days at Celtic were by this time numbered, the former Scotland internationalist eventually signing for his boyhood idols Hearts in March 1999.
Two other Coventry City youth players of the time were rather better-known to the manager, his sons Gavin and Craig. The younger, Craig, managed just a single League appearance and no goals in four seasons at Highfield Road. Gavin, the elder of the pair, would make 16 League appearances in six seasons with the Sky Blues, 11 from the bench.
He scored once, in a League Cup tie against Preston North End at Deepdale in September 2000, the goal coming from the penalty spot like so many of his father’s. He enjoyed his best spell of form at Coventry around 1998/99, leading to eight international appearances at Under 21 level for Scotland, and whilst he would not follow his father all the way to the senior Scotland set-up, he would emulate him by playing for Dundee and, of course, being part of the management set-up at Celtic.
Gavin commenced a four-month loan spell at his dad’s old Dens Park haunt in January 1999, featuring nine times, although he remained on the bench throughout Dundee’s visit to Celtic Park on Saturday, 3 April 1999, as the Hoops supporters enjoyed watching the early fruits of a promising Henrik Larsson /Mark Viduka strike partnership, both on target in a 5-0 win.
There was a brief one-month spell at Motherwell under his dad’s former Aberdeen colleague Eric Black in February 2002, before Gavin met up with Peterborough United manager Barry Fry for the first time, the Posh securing his services in March 2003 on loan until the end of the season. He would return to London Road in January 2007, following a successful spell at Hartlepool United, teaming up this time with the current Peterborough manager, Darren Ferguson, son of Alex, his dad’s old Aberdeen and Manchester United boss!
On Friday, 13 July 2007, Gavin was a second-half substitute as a Celtic side featuring Italians Massimo Donati and Andrea Capone beat Peterborough United 2-1 at London Road in a pre-season friendly. In the opposite dugout to Ferguson junior was Strachan senior, Gavin’s dad Gordon, now the Parkhead club’s manager. Such is the small and crazy world of professional football.
The junior Strachan and Ferguson would pair up again after Gavin’s playing career had ended, the former commencing his coaching career with the youths at Peterborough then working his way up to a first-team role under Darren before following him to Doncaster Rovers as his assistant manager in October 2015.
The duo left the Keepmoat Stadium in June 2018 before returning yet again to Peterborough in January of the following year, with Barry Fry now director of football at London Road. In June 2020, Gavin Strachan left the Posh to join yet another of his father’s former clubs, as first team coach under Neil Lennon at Celtic Park, following the departure of Damian Duff for family reasons.
Back at Coventry City, Gordon Strachan had broken the club’s transfer record to bring teenager Robbie Keane in from Wolves for £6m in August 1999. The Irish striker had a successful season at Coventry, before moving to Inter Milan for a mouth-watering £13m the following July. The cash windfall allowed Strachan to secure the services of two Welsh hitmen who would also light up Parkhead in years to come, Craig Bellamy arriving from Norwich for £6.5m in August then John Hartson moving from Wimbledon on a ‘pay for play’ deal in February 2001, having lost out on moves to a number of other clubs due to concerns about his fitness.
The powerful Hartson would prove the doubters wrong, scoring six goals in 12 League games at Highfield Road before moving to Celtic for £6m in August 2001, where he would hit more than a century of goals in five trophy-laden years in Paradise. Six weeks earlier, Bellamy had moved from Coventry City to Newcastle United for the same fee.
An extract from Majic, Stan and The King of Japan – the new blockbuster from Matt Corr, published by Celtic Star Books on Friday, 20 October 2023.
Pre-order signed and personalised copies now at Celtic Star Books.
John Hartson will be just one of many special guests at a huge and unique Celtic Star event to be held in the Kerrydale Suite at Celtic Park on Thursday, 19 October 2023. Tables for 10 at £180 or individual tickets priced just £20 for this special evening can be purchased now via Celtic Star Books.
Meanwhile here’s Matt Corr talking about his latest Celtic Star book on The Celtic Exchange Podcast…
Majic, Stan and the King of Japan is out in Friday 20 October and is available to order now HERE.
The Celtic Star presents a night with John Hartson and Stephen McManus at the Kerrydale on Thursday 19 October…
There’s no Celtic action for a few weeks due the latest international break, but you can still come along to Celtic Park on Thursday 19 October – on the anniversary of Hampden in the Sun, Celtic 7 Rangers 1…to join The Celtic Star team live in the Kerrydale with special guests John Hartson and Stephen McManus as we launch Matt Corr’s new book ‘Majic, Stan and the King of Japan’ which tells the story of Gordon Strachan’s first season at Celtic and we’ll have the trophies Celtic won that season there too!
There’s live music from the wonderful Boolavogue and many more Celtic guests coming along which we’ll start to announce tomorrow. Tickets are selling fast so get yours now, just click on the image below and we’ll see you in the Kerrydale. it’s going to be some night and a great Celtic fix during the international break!
Join The Celtic Star at the Kerrydale on Thursday 19 October when we celebrate the launch of Matt Corr’s new book Majic, Stan and the King of Japan which tells the story of Gordon Strachan’s first season as Celtic manager. We’ll have the trophies that the Celtic team won that season plus well delighted welcome our special guests John Hartson and Stephen McManus, both stars of that Celtic team.
And we have other guests to be announced later this week plus there’s live music from the wonderful Boolavogue. Tickets are selling fast for what is sure to be a wonderful night of Celtic conversation and music and you can order below…
