FOR Gordon Strachan, tomorrow's seasonal opener against St Mirren at Celtic Park is the resumption of the search that never ends, the quest for progress towards an unattainable perfection.
No amount of honours could ever be enough to induce the ultimate satisfaction in managers of Strachan's bottomless ambition. And, as he confirmed yesterday, the constant striving for an unachievable objective often necessitates sacrifices. It was a r
evelation that could be construed as a rebuttal of the accusation, made regularly over the past three years, that Celtic's success has been gained at the expense of flair and verve.
"My hopes for the new season are the same as they always are," he said. "That is, to try to score goals, to try to entertain and to try and win. For all people talk about the beautiful game, what everybody involved in it wants first of all is to win. To do that and to maintain that, you have to be constantly trying to improve, and that will never stop, no matter how successful you may become. For me at this moment, I can't ask any more from my players in terms of character or fitness. They've already proved themselves there several times over.
"Ability-wise, that's where I get off. That's where it's up to the players themselves. For us, the single most important aspect where improvement is needed would be in the completion of the ten-to-fifteen-yard pass. Get that right, be able to do that consistently, and other things will fall into place. You will retain possession of the ball for longer, you'll create more opportunities and you'll score more goals. It follows that you will also win more matches."
Since he succeeded Martin O'Neill in the summer of 2005, Strachan has not stopped winning, his three successive league championships complemented by Scottish Cup and CIS Cup triumphs in 2007 and 2006 respectively. It is hardly surprising that he should be relieved that the pre-season friendlies are over and the legitimate action is at hand.
"I enjoy the working part of the pre-season, but not the friendlies," he said. "I like coaching, I like being with players, but I don't enjoy the games, because they are not competitive. I've always been like that, even as a player. I think I was sent off five times in eight pre-season friendly matches and once in 832 competitive games." The expected arrival this weekend of the Barcelona midfielder, Marc Crosas, is a relatively isolated instance of recruitment of a player from one of Europe's leading clubs, underlining the difficulties that Strachan has to endure nowadays in the business of competing in the transfer market.
"There's a clamber here for top players, but no clamber among top players to come here, and by here I mean Scotland," said Strachan. "So what we have to do is try to find bargains or gambles. A big part of any manager's job now when trying to recruit is to assess the degree of risk. I mean, every transfer is a gamble. You look at clubs like Fulham and others of comparable status in England buying players for £12million and none of them can guarantee they will bring them success. In terms of purchasing power, we get off a long way before those kind of figures. With somebody like Crosas, who is costing an initial outlay of just £400,000, you believe that's a gamble well worth taking. I've only seen him on video, but others have seen him in the flesh and, if you talk to people whose judgment you trust, you think, right, he's worth the risk. What do I think he can bring to us? Well, from what I've seen, I believe he'll start with mastery of the ten-to-15-yard pass."
Where improving individuals is concerned, Strachan is entitled to credit for the progress of Aiden McGeady, unquestionably the most skilful player in his squad. McGeady himself admitted yesterday that he began to make proper use of his natural gifts when he became receptive to the manager's advice.
"We understand each other better now, because I'm taking on board what he says," McGeady said. "I've realised he's said things in the past that have helped me. I remember specifically before the match away to Benfica in the Champions League last season when the manager said that I would be most effective by running at them in straight lines.
"In preparing for the game, I was still zig-zagging inside and out and he kept insisting it was the wrong way. In the game itself, he proved to be right. I was running straight at them and had a good performance that night. I'd always seen myself as a central midfield player, but I've also realised I'm not quite ready for that and I can be most effective playing in the wider areas. I'd like to score more, but I'm working on that, mainly on composure when I get goalscoring opportunities."
The full article contains 846 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
