In Champions League terms the money Strachan spent has been minimal, yet his free transfers, cut-price pick-ups and homegrown youngsters have all played their part in qualifying for the last 16 with a game to spare. When he has spent money, Strachan has got it right. Only Jiri Jarosik — who cost a reported £2m — has failed to contribute as much as his manager would have hoped.
It is difficult to compare the teams of O’Neill and Strachan because they were put together to play the game in different ways. However, the quality gap up front is so great that it is foolish to suggest the current manager would not swap any of his strikers for Henrik Larsson, John Hartson or Chris Sutton in their prime. Hartson and Sutton were both £6m men and provided a battering ram that could knock down any opposition in Scotland and all but the best on the continent. In Larsson they had a world-class forward who could take the chances they created. Regardless of the return they have given Strachan on a far lesser investment, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Maciej Zurawski and Kenny Miller are not in the same league.
In the centre of midfield there is little to choose between Stilian Petrov and Thomas Gravesen next to Neil Lennon, although Lennon was a better player six years ago than he is now, which is why it cost O’Neill £5.75m to get him. The real change in this Celtic team has come in the wide areas. O’Neill had Alan Thompson and Didier Agathe either as wing-backs or wide midfielders. Thompson was so important; he delivered quality service to the front men from deep positions on the left and got his share of goals. Agathe was less effective over the long term. Once opposition teams worked him out he didn’t carry the threat he posed earlier in his Celtic career and ended up at right-back. Shunsuke Nakamura would get in ahead of him and is an example of the type of wide player Strachan wants; elusive, unpredictable and with a freedom to drift behind the strikers as well as get behind the full-backs.
Neither side possesses centre-backs of the standard required for a prolonged campaign in the Champions League, but neither Gary Caldwell nor Stephen McManus would shift a combination of Bobo Balde, Joos Valgaeren and Johan Mjallbly. When O’Neill played with a back four he had in Jackie McNamara a better right-back than Strachan has available to him, but as adaptable as McNamara is he could never play in two positions at once, and O’Neill never solved the problem at left-back. Strachan has done it within a year, at a cost of £600,000. Lee Naylor, who has progressed seamlessly from the Championship to the Premierleague and now the Champions League, would improve O’Neill’s side in this area. Artur Boruc, in goal, is also a better bet than either Rab Douglas or Magnus Hedman, the third Strachan player to get in ahead of his counterpart in O’Neill’s team.
So how has a team with less money and inferior players done what the team that reached the Uefa Cup final could not? It’s because of a change in the way they play. This Celtic team play a more intricate, faster style of football. It features a kind of player that was never prominent in an O’Neill team. There are fewer man-mountains, and more players who can do the unexpected, like Strachan himself.
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The role of Tommy Burns in this change is significant. He appears to be playing a more prominent part now than he was under O’Neill, who had his own trusted frontline coaches in John Robertson and Steven Walford. A new manager could have seen Burns as a Parkhead insider, a former manager, a cult hero and kept him on the outside. Strachan has embraced him and the style that Strachan wants his team to play suits Burns. Along with Gary Pendrey, Strachan’s assistant, Burns is part of a coaching set-up that has successfully rebuilt a team while dominating the Premierleague and breaking new ground in Europe.
All of this takes nothing away from O’Neill, who joined Celtic when they were at their lowest point and picked them up immediately. He had money to spend, but he used it to bring in players who will be remembered for a long time, even if they did not manage to make an impact in the Champions League. That is why only a few of this Celtic team would make it into O’Neill’s side, and it makes the current manager’s achievement even more remarkable.
Strachan’s budget in January and next summer should be strengthened by progress to the last 16, but it will take more than he will be given to make this team a contender for the latter stages of the Champions League.