OLBG Exclusive Interview with Gordon Strachan

Interview July 2025

Speaking exclusively with OLBG, former Manchester United midfielder Gordon Strachan has explained why Ruben Amorim would have no complaints if he is sacked by Christmas. 

The former Celtic and Scotland boss has also argued why Brendan Rodgers shouldn’t be offered a lifetime deal at Celtic Park while naming Conor Gallagher as a potential addition at Old Trafford. 

Strachan has also warned Leeds United that they cannot afford to overstretch themselves in the transfer market and backed Rangers to close the gap on Celtic. 

What are your thoughts on Russell Martin’s appointment at Rangers?

I think Russell Martin is a good appointment. I think there's other names out there who are more experienced, who have done well in the game and fans seem to want similar things.

Russel Martin

Fans want their club to spend money and that’s great, they think that’s great, even if they don’t know the player they want their club to sign someone for £15million if their rival has signed someone for £10m. That’s what makes it look important, it doesn't matter who the player is, what their background in the game is or how they fit in.

It's similar for the manager. They want somebody who has been about, done a lot, but there is a point where these managers who have been about a lot do not have the drive to go and grab a club by the scruff of the neck and go again. They've probably done that a couple of times in their career and are now at a stage where they just want to sit and do a tactic talk and let the other coaches get on with it.

I don't think that's what Rangers need now. A Rangers manager now needs to have a clean canvas with the enthusiastic new owners who want the challenge. The owners want a manager who thinks this is the best job in the world. Managers who have been at loads of clubs, do they think this is the best club in the world or is it a money-making exercise?

That’s definitely not Russell’s attitude. He just might not have the outlandish personality some fans want, someone jumping up and down the line and doing brutal, in-your-face interviews. That’s what the fans want.

The people who are picking the manager have to be above that. They have to want a manager who has a plan, who knows what he's doing, who can take on the challenge, is enthusiastic, and he still has anger to do well.

I think that's what they've got to get with Russell. He will probably have a bit of anger. The fact that he left Southampton, he's got to reinvent himself again and say to the world that he's a good coach.

There's a good coach and there's a good manager. Russell is a good coach. Now the test is if he is a top, top manager because when you join Rangers or Celtic, it's not your coaching that's really tested. It's your mental fortitude, your resilience, your character.

That's what's tested when you become a Rangers manager. That is what will be new to Russell. It was a bit like that for me and I was older than Russell when I took the Celtic job. You think you've got a good idea how you're going to handle it and what it's got to be like then you realise, nope, no, I didn't have a clue it's got to be like this. It's manic.

Should Celtic tie Brendan Rodgers down to a lifetime deal?

I wouldn't like a lifetime deal. Then no matter what happens you've got this deal. I don't think that's got to happen because both parties in this are not stupid.

Brendan Rodgers

They know that even Brendan, and if you look at most managers, they spend about three years and then for most Celtic managers, they would like to go on somewhere else. It's not the club, the club's fantastic. Sometimes the fact that you're repeating yourself against the same teams week in, week out on plastic pitches—it’s not easy to keep momentum going.

You're going and playing in front of people with a small stadium, plastic pitches. There's no easy repetitiveness with the media. You're literally saying the same thing every week, the media are asking the same questions every week, dealing with the same thing.

The bonuses managers get at Celtic—you'll get European games, which is a great bonus for any manager. So that's what will entice you, but there's a problem of keeping that momentum going over a three, four, or five-year period.

It's not easy to motivate yourself week in, week out. Sometimes it's nice to have a refresher and go somewhere else. It’s difficult for any Celtic or Rangers manager to last more than three or four years.

So I don't think it's wise, I don't think that conversation will take place on a long-term contract. The conversation will be how positive you are, are you still enjoying it, do you have any feelings about wanting to go at a specific time. Do you think you can last two, three, four years? If not, right, let's think about a short-term contract.

If you have a short-term contract, we'll have the same conversation in a year's time. Are you staying or you're not staying? That's the problem. The players themselves then get a wee bit worried. Is the manager staying? Is the manager going? There becomes a grey area there.

When I was at Southampton it was leaked that I was going to leave in the summer which made it difficult for the players because I think when it got leaked we were about fifth in the Premiership, and I could see the players wavering after that because there was a kind of grey area.

That is one of Celtic's problems if Brendan's only got a year to go. Does he sign a new contract or does he not sign one? If he doesn't sign one, then it becomes that kind of, is he going, is he staying? Which he could do without when you're a Celtic manager going for the league.

I think there'll be more pressure from Rangers this year. It's hard enough to deal with winning and dealing with the pressure of winning another league without this creeping in all the time. You know, are you staying, are you going?

What percentage chance would you give of Rangers winning the title?

Do I think Rangers have got a better chance than they did last year at this time? I would say yes. Do I think it'll be closer? I would say yes. Do I think Celtic are the favourites? Yes, I do.

But again, a lot can happen in the transfer market in the next couple of weeks. If Celtic sign two outstanding players, then if you look for percentages, it goes up, their chances of winning it.

At the moment I think it will be closer than it was last year. I would say yes. That depends on who Celtic sign, how close it’ll be.

Where do Celtic need to strengthen this summer?

Celtic have had wide attackers rather than wingers. People can score goals, get in the box, make goals, rather than just a winger who can cross the ball and things like that. So I think that's where they'll be going.

Do they need another striker? Yes I think they do. They'll be looking at that as well. They'll be looking at a midfield player similar to Reo Hatate who can eliminate people in midfield.

In the modern game, because the defenders are good, when people get back into zonal areas or go man for man, the fact is that you need somebody to eliminate people. Hatate could do that and so could Matt O’Riley. Matt O’Riley has been gone a year but they still need somebody who can do that as well.

Does the Conference League offer a great chance of silverware to Celtic and Rangers?

In the Conference League, you’d expect both Celtic and Rangers to get to the last eight at least, both sides. If you get to the last eight in the Conference League, that's the only time it starts to get exciting. Previous to that, you're going, I'll take it or leave it.

There are teams in there that didn't even know existed. But you would take it. The quarter-final stage is where you go, right, I'll take that. When you get to the quarter-final stages, you're usually left with at least four decent sides and if you miss one of them, you've got a shot at a semi-final and something can definitely happen.

I think that would help any manager if they do get to that stage for their CV, that's for sure. However, I think that if Celtic or Rangers are losing in the league then a quarter-final would help their standing because all the Celtic fans and Rangers fans are interested in winning the league. That is it.

People will now talk about Russell Martin's system and playing against Brendan Rodgers' system and things like that. I don't think Celtic or Rangers fans really care about systems. All they're insistent on is winning. That is it. The only collateral in Glasgow is winning.

After you win it two or three times, then they will ask about the style. We want more goals, yes, that's understandable because you're getting bored of winning regularly. So you want to be guaranteed wonderful football. But at this moment, Rangers fans don't care how they play, they need to win.

There's a difference between Celtic and Rangers and most clubs in the world. You have to win with Real Madrid, Barcelona and people like that because they have to win. Manchester United have got to win, Liverpool have got to win, but most other teams in the world, if you give them hope that they might win, that's good enough.

That's not good enough in Scotland. Most clubs in the world want to see the hope that your team can go and try and win a game of football. Positively, you want shots, headers, crosses. That's what you want to see.

The rest is all propaganda, but you want hope. Celtic, Rangers, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Man City and Liverpool—you have to win. It's the only thing they're interested in.

How good a signing is Matheus Cunha for Man Utd?

It's just where Matheus Cunha is going to play. He's got to play just off the front. Obviously the manager's got an idea, having paid that sort of money. He can make goals from nothing, which is a great thing these days in football. I think the days of the tap and strike are gone for a lot of reasons.

Matheus Cunha

The Gary Lineker type strikers and Ian Rush—Ian Rush had a bit more variation—but that type of striker, there’s less and less now. So I think it's the strikers that can make things on their own and I think that's what he's got. He's got the ability to make things on his own.

Where he fits in at the moment I don't really know. It doesn't look like they've got to change from three at the back, wing backs, maybe two in midfield—that's what he likes. Or is it going to be one sitting midfield player with two attacking players and Cunha could be one of them? You don't know at this stage.

It's very hard but what you've seen last year, I've got to say when you play for Wolves and clubs like that, I've seen it before with all these players that have come to Manchester United over the last few years. When you come to Manchester United, especially when fans are now desperate, desperate to win the league, because if you don’t do it soon you could be going back to that barren spell where you go 25 years without it—Liverpool went 30 years without it.

It could end up being that. It becomes a greater pressure on playing at Old Trafford where there's desperation. If you joined when Sir Alex was in charge you could have slipped in nicely because they'd have a good chance to win the league or be in the top two.

Now it's different for players, you know when you're going there all eyes are on you to do incredibly well and it has to happen now. Because the longer it goes on, the worse it gets, the more panic sets in. You're going into a panic at Old Trafford where 10 years ago it was a relaxed Old Trafford.

The club could get players introduced and it wouldn't be a big thing because Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs and David Beckham—they could look after you. I don't think they've got anybody to look after players who come into the team like they did before.

Can Man Utd win major honours with Andre Onana in goal?

When I've been successful anywhere, I've had goalkeepers with personality and presence. Whether it’s a physical presence, a personality presence—that is always needed in the team.

Andre Onana

When they walk down the tunnel and they see a goalie in front of them with a physical presence, a personality presence, then you think, thank goodness he's there.

The goalkeeper there now, I don't think he's got either of them. I don't think he's got a physical presence and I don't think he's got this personality presence.

He looks like he's constantly at war with himself worrying about making a mistake and that he might have to go somewhere else to get that confidence back.

At a club like this you definitely need that. When Peter Schmeichel went to United it was one of the best things that ever happened to the club. There is a lot of talk about other players, but Schmeichel was huge.

How much would Scott McTominay cost a year after leaving Man Utd?

Sometimes it's about finding the right team for you as a player. Maybe that's the tip. I think for a long time, Scott McTominay was looked upon as the new kind of Stephen Fletcher who could pop in and help and all the rest of it. He didn't really have his own identity at Manchester United.

Scott McTominay

I think when he went to Napoli, he found his own identity. People might have thought it might have been a bit rough, but what he's done with his life is good for all kids to see. You decide where you go in life. In the football world, business world, whatever world you want to work in, you decide how far you can go in it. Along the way, people will kind of doubt you.

Obviously, the management team, the coaching team thought, right, he's just not for us. So he's gone, right, I'll have to accept that. I don't want to go on about it. He said, you have been great, time to move on. And he's decided that this is the best thing for him. And he's used that opportunity and he's been prepared for it. He's ready for it.

He's turned into probably one of Italy's best players this year, if not the best. I was in Sorrento recently and that man is now a god and he did it himself. No matter what you say about coaches, you've still got to do it yourself. So I think he's done great.

Could Ruben Amorim be out of a job by Christmas?

At any club in the Premier League, however well you've done, it's very unlikely you get a lot of leeway. And at every Premier League club right now, even if it's Brentford, if it's Fulham, they will have a list of three or four players as managers they want in right now.

Ruben Amorim

So if it doesn't go well then I think Ruben Amorim would accept that. I think he would say he's had a long enough time now to get a settled team.

I think if it does happen at Christmas or something like that, I don't think he'd have a real problem because I think he would probably say he's had a good shot.

I think you'd probably know how well financially backed he's been. Not only the transfer fees but the actual salaries—because people tend to forget that when there's a budget going on. Transfer fees is only a bit of it but it's the salaries that eventually can kill a club.

I don't think it’s embarrassing in the modern game to get the sack. Thirty years ago it was embarrassing, it's not like that now. You come and go, every top manager apart from Pep Guardiola, I think, has had the sack.

So it's not an embarrassing thing. The Amorim lad is talented, there's no doubt about it. He's got a good way about him. I think for most people watching Manchester United, we do like him, that's for sure. But by the way, there'll be at least three managers sacked before October anyway. Hopefully he's not one of them.

Would Conor Gallagher be a smart addition at Man Utd?

Man Utd don't need a bit more bite, they need legs, real legs, real closing down. Can Conor Gallagher do that? Yes he can, he's definitely got legs, he's a good teammate.

Has he got enough imagination? I don't know, but if you have people like that with legs in there and have imagination around them, then he'd be a good signing.

I don't think he's got the legs and imagination to hit these passes that Bruno Fernandes can hit where you don't see it coming. I think they need players like that. A Christian Eriksen of 10 years ago could have done that in the game that is now as frantic as PSG are now playing with their level of fitness.

But you have to have an imagination at the same time. So the days of the luxury player, if you want to be a top side, are gone. So, Conor Gallagher has definitely got the legs. He’s got the robustness. Has he got goals? Has he got that flair? These players are hard to come by. Would I take him compared to some of the players that have played over the last couple of years at Man Utd? Yes, I would.

Have you been impressed by Leeds United in the transfer market?

Ipswich spent a lot last year and went down. With Leeds there's no doubt they got in financial difficulties and they had to do a lot of work last year. I don't think Leeds United will put themselves in that position again because if you're the custodian of the club, the owners, you cannot put the club at risk.

Leeds players celebrating 

I think the players they’ve got to get cannot be £60m or £70m or on £300,000 a week. I think that there was a bit of that happened a couple of years ago and there were definitely worries in the Leeds camp that they might have overstretched themselves.

They will not overstretch themselves again. So that has to go down to player development. If you look at Celtic, for instance, over the last four, five, six, seven years—they buy players in low, develop them and sell them for six, seven, eight times what they came in at.

I think that's what's got to happen with Leeds. Again, Celtic sometimes have to sell them. I don't think Leeds at any time need to sell them because they're a big enough club.

The players want to play in the Premier League. Celtic is different because most players love playing with Celtic to a certain point. Then the lure of the Premier League comes up, then they want to go. Leeds are already in the Premier League. So I think they have to develop players and that means it has to come from Daniel Farke. He's not got the money so he has to spend hours and hours on the training field with these guys.

Would Ben Chilwell be a good addition for Leeds?

Ben Chilwell has Premier League experience, but it’s about that fire in your belly and how recently you have been playing regularly. Do you need to play football again to have a great lifestyle? I don't know that. I hope he has.

If someone has not had that adrenaline of playing for a long time, then you have to ask if they still have it to go and play at the top level and be an asset to the team.

That being said, if it was a Ben Chilwell of six, seven years ago who was hungry, before the injuries—he's had injuries and all the rest of it—can he take it up and go again? It's very, very hard at times to do that. Very hard when you've taken this foot off the gas. Now whether it’s your fault or the club’s fault or other circumstances, it's very hard to get back up there again.

Would Kalvin Phillips back to Leeds make sense?

It's the same as Ben Chilwell. It's hard to get it back. It's like a golfer who goes years and you wonder where they've disappeared to. There were great golfers at one time, they felt good about themselves. If I give any advice to Chilwell and Kalvin Phillips—if you get yourself at maximum fitness, then one thing in your mind is that I'm still as fit as I used to be.

Kalvin Phillips

But I think these two guys might have in the back of their mind, I'm not as fit as I used to be because I've not played as many games. Now you can say, whose fault is that? Is it the manager who bought you? Or is it you or whatever?

But you keep up your fitness, you keep up your standard. I know it's very hard when you're not playing games. But I'd worry about both of their level of fitness at the moment with what Leeds have got to do.

If you watch PSG, the one thing about them is that their technique, speed, endurance and robustness to these players is phenomenal. That's my worry with Phillips and Chilwell. I'm hoping I'm completely wrong and both players can get clubs and do really well, but that would be my one mindset if I was a manager looking at them just now. Can I bring them up to speed to play top-level games again?

Could Leeds finish above Man Utd next season?

If both teams could get the top six, that'd be great for them. I think the time when we came up, we ended up fourth. But what happened when we came up was that Howard Wilkinson spent a lot of money at that time.

A lot has got to do with recruitment in the modern game, but it’s not everything. If you recruit well then, you invariably do well.

Do I think Leeds could be above Man Utd? I don't think they can at this moment in time. But it’s about what they do over the next month. I do hope that both teams can have a really successful season. My wife's a Leeds United fan and possibly we'll lean more towards Leeds than Manchester United because I still have friends there working.

As I've said, it's very hard for me but I'm just hoping both teams have a great time.

Are you looking forward to Man Utd vs Leeds?

They're a bit edgy, these games. Thankfully the tackling from behind and bits and bobs have changed it. Now, if you ask most supporters, would you like to go back to the 90s and 80s and early 2000s and have the rules there just for this one game? They’d say yes we would.

Probably players would like a little bit of that as well. When it's a gladiatorial spectacle rather than a game of football. It's nice to have that every now and then. I think sometimes we get a wee bit fed up with the sanitised football that we see today.

Are Coventry City fans expecting automatic promotion from Frank Lampard?

Frank Lampard

I have three season ticket holders in my family at Coventry and I know a lot of people at Coventry. That's not the way they think here. I think if they get the top six again, that's successful.

That is the feeling around here in Coventry. I don't think it’s about automatic promotion. I don't think they think that way. They understand that they're probably at a level that definitely gets the top 10. If they get the top six then they're hoping to get promoted from there so I think Frank's in a good place. People are pleased with him, pleased with the work and I think he likes it here as well.

Can Kyogo Furuhashi take Birmingham City back to the Premier League?

Birmingham has always got to be like that, trying to get back to the Premier League. Even when I spoke to the people there two years ago, they were talking about the money they've got to spend on the stadium. That's their thought every day—the business side is about the Premier League.

Kyogo Furuhashi is a fantastic, fantastic player with a wonderful attitude. When the Birmingham fans see him, they've never seen anybody who runs about like him. Maybe Robbie Savage, but that was in midfield just running about with his hair flapping everywhere.

This guy has a real purpose to how he does it. His first thought is how do you get in behind people. So you have to then say to your midfield players instead of passing short, you have to look for this guy getting in behind—because when he gets away from you, he's leaving you.

He's a wonderful finisher, with a wonderful attitude. I just hope Birmingham have enough of the ball for his assets. He went over to Rennes and because they weren't as good and didn’t have as much ball as Celtic, he struggled a bit and he didn't get game time.

I also think that recruitment and management didn't see eye to eye on that one. That's why he struggled a bit. I think he needs to be in a team that has a lot of the ball and the players in the midfield can see passes where he'll make runs. He'll make runs that the Birmingham midfield players have never seen before.

Could Wrexham end up looking over their shoulders in the Championship?

It's an overpowering league because there's a good level to it—good strength, good fitness, physical side to it. It's non-stop. League One is a bit like that as well, but this has gone up a level again.

Wherever Wrexham have been, they've managed to come up and lift themselves up again. Once you've got momentum like they've got, it's a powerful thing—the mental side of football, the momentum and how good you feel about yourself and how strong you feel.

Wrexham on the rise

If you've got this mental strength and you think you're really fantastically fit and you run about like a maniac, there's not much change to the physical side of it. But the mental side is different. You can’t think that you can run anywhere and do anything. I don't think they've had any real down moments, so that will be one to watch.

If they struggle—which they've not done in the last five years since they've been taken over—you wonder what will happen.

They deserve where they've been. They've been exciting. They've added to football. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have come in. Whatever happens, they'll never be forgotten. That's a great thing about football—if you leave memories for people. That's what these two owners have done. It's not just for Wrexham, but football itself.

Could Celtic and Rangers end up playing in England?

Eventually it will happen, but you're nearly there now. The Champions League now is 17 games. You'll end up with European leagues—whatever you think, there's got to be European Leagues because the owners, from around the world, run the clubs now.

I'm afraid they're not interested in most clubs, they're just interested in making the game bigger, better and with more money. Eventually there will be European leagues.

They tried it a couple of years ago but they weren't that clever. But eventually that will happen and somehow Celtic and Rangers will end up there. They won’t be in England—they'll end up in the European league.

The owners of Celtic and Rangers at that point will go, yes thank you very much. I think there will probably be two European leagues.

Is Tony Bloom’s investment good for Scottish football?

Absolutely—and if we actually package the game better then we will make more money. It's great that Tony Bloom is coming up here. It'll be part of his strategy to work with Brighton and Hearts and things like that.

It's a great place for kids to develop. Loads of young players have come from Europe and Scotland and moved on. You're talking about Virgil van Dijk and people like Victor Wanyama who moved to Celtic and went somewhere higher. There's so many I can name.

It's a great league to learn your trade, but also it's a great league to find out the character of players. Can you change your players? Because it's frantic, it's fun at times, it's exciting at times.

I remember last year my mate had been watching two teams and said it was boring—that old chess game where nobody makes a mistake and the coaches are making sure that they're known as tactical genius rather than entertainers.

Then Dundee and Dundee United came on and it was wonderful. There were six goals, there were things happening everywhere. There were mistakes that allowed this to happen. But as a fan, it was great to watch. It filled the screen, there were goals, there were incidents—that can happen in the Scottish league.

We can do a lot better in promoting the game and packaging it around the world, which I’ve gone on about for years. I think that's what's got to happen with the Scottish league.