With the news that ex-Celtic manager Gordon Strachan this week has formally been announced as the new Scotland high-heid-yin we would like to offer our congratulations to the wee man who is held in the highest regard by all of us at ETims. Gordon has by some distance been Celtic\u2019s biggest supporter of those ex-Celts working in the media over the past number of years. While many are happy to take money and put the boot into the club at every opportunity, Gordon comes from a very different angle by offering continual praise and affection for Celtic either on ESPN or ITV when offering Champions League appraisal.<\/p>\n
Not bad for someone who didn\u2019t kiss the club badge or profess undying love for Celtic from childhood\u2026..<\/p>\n
His new role will clearly see less of a cheerleading position to avoid upsetting many – probably in the Scottish media – but we all know where his heart lies and wish him the very best of luck.<\/p>\n
Over to Gordon to explain how he feels about Celtic\u2026..<\/p>\n
Manager departs with rousing reception <\/b><\/p>\n
David Friel GORDON STRACHAN said thanks and farewell to the Celtic supporters during an emotional speech at the Tommy Burns Tribute Match on Sunday.<\/p>\n The former Hoops boss, who stood down last week, made a swift return to Glasgow to honour the life of his great friend and was given a standing ovation as he took to the pitch before kick-off.<\/p>\n Having won six trophies in four years and guided the club to historic European achievements, he has written his name into Celtic folklore and leaves with the best wishes of everyone at the club.<\/p>\n \u201cSuccessful, really,\u201d said Gordon, as he was asked to sum up his Celtic tenure in front of the 30,000 crowd.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first joined the club, I wanted to earn the respect of the Celtic supporters. I didn\u2019t want to tell you I was a Celtic supporter as a kid, I didn\u2019t want to kiss badges and I didn\u2019t know the words to the Fields of Athenry.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to earn the respect and vice versa, I wanted to see if you really were the best supporters in the world. From those four years, I found out that you are the best supporters in the world.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like to thank the supporters who I met personally, the real ones who I touched. They helped through the tough times and made it far easier for my family. I\u2019ll always remember that.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t kid you on that I could ever feel like a Celtic supporter when I was the manager because I couldn\u2019t. I really couldn\u2019t tell you what it feels like to watch Rangers win nine-in-a-row.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t tell you what it feels like to go to some awful grounds, where you are penned into a corner and the price of everything goes up when you go there. I don\u2019t know what that feels like.<\/p>\n \u201cBut from today, I will start to feel it because I\u2019m going to have to start paying my way from now on. From today, I\u2019ve become a Celtic supporter.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like to thank everybody at Celtic. The players were magnificent to work with and I\u2019d like to thank the board. They have been magnificent and they are doing everything they can to help the club be successful. They were fantastic to me.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I could sum it all up like this \u2013 since I started out in football at 15, every decision I made, and some have been bad, I wouldn\u2019t change it for the world. Because if I changed one of those decisions, I would not have been the Celtic manager and that would be hard. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n Fittingly, the ex-Celtic boss also reserved a special word for his close friend Tommy Burns. The tribute match ended in an 11-4 win for the current Celtic team against a select side consisting of a host of Hoops legends.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cI came here to be the Celtic manager but I was lucky enough to become the best of friends with the nicest man I\u2019ve ever met in my life.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had some great times at this club over the last four years. We had smashing European nights, we won championships and did great things together. Tommy helped me more than anybody.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it hadn\u2019t been for Tommy, my life wouldn\u2019t have been as funny as it was and we wouldn\u2019t have had as much success as we did.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With the news that ex-Celtic manager Gordon Strachan this week has formally been announced as the new Scotland high-heid-yin we would like to offer our…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Gordon-Strachan-smiling.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-tL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1845"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1851,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845\/revisions\/1851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nJune 1st<\/sup> 2009<\/p>\n