Having finally put their feud to bed, after a long chat following the recent friendly at Celtic Park, both would now love to move on from last season, too. Yet their aims come into conflict at Old Trafford on Wednesday night.
Ferguson would like an emphatic victory to send out a message to Europe that United will be a force again this season; Strachan must avoid an emphatic defeat to nurture some belief among his young squad for the battles to come against FC Copenhagen and Benfica.
Emerging from the wreckage of Bratislava and Martin O’Neill’s shadow has been a hard shift for Strachan. The Premierleague title, won convincingly in his first season, bought him time and now he is starting to put more of his stamp on the club. The sale of Stilian Petrov to O’Neill’s Aston Villa has allowed him to recruit Thomas Gravesen from Real Madrid for £2m and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink from PSV Eindhoven for £3.5m. The striker announced himself with a debut goal, and also scored the winner against Aberdeen yesterday, while Gravesen has hardly crept in quietly either.
“Hola, Shrek,” said Ronaldo to Gravesen at Real Madrid and they bought him to do the ugly but effective things that were previously Claude Makelele’s forte. The problem was, of course, that Gravesen’s shaven-headed appearance is deceptive and he is more of a playmaker than a destroyer, capable of retaining possession and creating chances with his scrupulous passing. Everton faded badly two seasons ago when they lost him to the Bernabeu and only just clung on to the fourth place which gave them a shot at the Champions League. Shrek’s princess is rather feisty in the films and Gravesen’s girlfriend is not shy either. Kira Eggers is an actress who specialises in adult material of a rather different certificate from Shrek and has recently moved from starring in front of the camera to directing behind it. Celtic supporters have not known whether to turn to the back pages or the front as newspapers have feasted on her curvaceous form.
Strachan is more of a John Wayne man when it comes to films but Gravesen brings the experience of Europe’s elite leagues, the Premiership and La Liga, he feels his side lacks compared to O’Neill’s. “I am new to the Champions League like most of my players, while United’s boys have years of experience of it,” he stressed, “but when I look at the squad with those two and even Lee Naylor (signed from Wolves on the same day as Vennegoor of Hesselink), I feel a lot more confident. The squad we took over to America for pre-season was a young, young one and I felt for them because they needed a wee bit of guidance at the time. It was unsettled for various reasons, now I look at it and know it is mine for four or five months. There are no grey areas. Jan and Thomas have personality but it is not just personalities you sign — otherwise I would have signed Vinny Jones — you have to be able to play.”
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Old Trafford is the only club ground in Britain with a capacity bigger than Celtic Park’s 60,832 and the visitors can genuinely claim to be underdogs. O’Neill always played this card cleverly against English opposition, particularly emphasising the gulf in revenue from television, but Strachan was reluctant to see it as a liberating factor. “The pressure is not off us, I feel it the same, one way or the other,” he replied. “I think the rest of the football world in Europe will say, yes, we are underdogs and can play without pressure, but in Glasgow and Scotland, and whoever supports Celtic, they want their team to win.”
O’Neill managed Celtic to Uefa Cup victories over Blackburn and Liverpool and also to a testimonial win at Old Trafford five years ago, a game which Gravesen attended, yet Strachan sees those heady nights as belonging to another era. “It was a different team, with players who were at the peak of their careers, who were assembled quickly at a time when finances were stronger than they are now. They were a ready-made team, with good experience of playing down in England and they knew how to handle it. A lot of our current players have never played in England. If you look at our back four, it is an inexperienced one, but we need to learn quickly.”
His new manager’s caution contrasted with the more bullish attitude of Gravesen, who caught the Celtic bug from Alan Stubbs at Everton and has watched them several times as a supporter with his father. “Being part of a game like this is what I wanted at this club and I am looking forward to it,” he said. “It is two fantastic, massive clubs with incredible histories behind them.”
He does not believe his new teammates will freeze and will not concede the other three clubs are battling for second place behind United. “To begin saying we might fight for second? I won’t do that. I want to play a game first and see the strength of our team and how we can impose ourselves in the games, not to start by saying we lie down and don’t want to do anything. We want to go there and see the strength of our game. People rise to the occasion in the Champions League, they thrive on it and want to be part of it. I know I do.”
The Dane’s parting shot at Real Madrid was that some players play only for themselves and that Fabio Capello, the new coach, is arrogant. He famously came to blows with Robinho in one training session but is determined not to become a Glasgow galactico. “My style will depend on what the manager wants me to do. I can’t go running around doing my thing if the manager asks the team to play in a certain way. I come here to be a team player, to be part of a group. I have seen people looking for the light and wanting to put themselves into it and, for sure, I don’t want to be like that.”
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Gravesen senses Scottish football is set for something of a renaissance and good- naturedly rebuked a question about what he would make of visits to outposts such as Dunfermline and Inverness. “Have you not followed the Scottish League for the last year? I have played in Spain but I have followed the Scottish league and seen how strong it has become. People are coming in and attracting players to this league and it is getting better and better. You can even take it to the Scottish national team because they are playing better now and that comes from the league. That’s where players evolve and become better.”
United caught a transitional Rangers at the right time in the Champions League three years ago and ran out comfortable 3-0 winners in the Old Trafford tie, with two goals from Ruud van Nistelrooy and one from Diego Forlan. Ferguson would love it to be as simple on Wednesday but upbraided somebody who described it as a meeting of Britain’s two biggest clubs. “That’s a good one, saying that Celtic are bigger than Rangers,” he said. “I am not going down that line. What I have to get rid of is the Scotland-England thing because if we go down that road we will make it harder for ourselves. We don’t want to get caught up in the emotion of it all. We managed to do that against Rangers, forgot about me being from Glasgow and playing for Rangers, and it’s the same with Celtic.”
United managed only three goals in six games during last season’s group stage, a fault their manager wants to see rectified quickly. “In four games against Lille and Villarreal we never scored but it will be different this year I can assure you,” he added. “I would never have believed we would have finished bottom of our group if somebody had told me that at the start. The players won’t want reminding of it because nobody likes bad memories, but good footballers tell themselves they don’t want it to happen again.”
Strachan, meanwhile, must hope the survivors from Artmedia in his team have the same attitude and that Gravesen’s confidence proves infectious.