The Celtic manager recalled being at Hampden Park as a spectator “when there were 137,000 people there for Scotland and England, it was scary, I remember not being able to move, at all”. He will again be seeking room for manoeuvre when he returns for Wednesday’s second CIS Cup semi-final against Motherwell; the changes he has made since taking over from O’Neill require the justification of early silverware.
Chris Sutton has gone with some acrimony, Didier Agathe is likely to depart next with even more, these are big Strachan calls and only results will show them to be right or wrong. The manager has begun a front-to-back rebuilding programme, a direct contrast to the O’Neill ethos, that has made Celtic look better in attack, but left their defence open to it. Their Premierleague form has given Celtic a momentum, but their cup football keeps applying the brakes; first the false start that was Artmedia Bratislava in the Champions League, then crashing out of the Scottish Cup 2-1 at Clyde.
The importance of not getting beaten in midweek is not lost on Strachan. “The criticism, both private and public, might just spur us on,” he said of the aftermath of the Broadwood defeat. “Normally I’d say the players are motivated the same for every game, but these are special circumstances because that was a momentous result. We just have to make sure this time that everybody knows it’s a cup tie. You can’t treat it like a normal league game, you have to be more up for a cup tie, it has to feel different.” It has to end differently, too, for his sake.
Stilian Petrov was another CIS Cup winner in his first Celtic season, the 2-0 victory over Aberdeen in 2000, though strangely he has never won it since. A year later, the trophy was brought to his hospital bed as he recovered from a broken leg. “Martin O’Neill told me, ‘You’ll win it again yourself one day’, but I still haven’t done,” he said, though a new contract until 2009 increases his chances. “There is more emphasis on this competition this season,” he added, in reluctant reference to Artmedia and Clyde, “so we need to put even more into this one. People were saying, ‘Now you’re playing well you can go for the treble’, before the Clyde game, but they weren’t right.” Petrov added that the club’s new players would gain confidence from winning the CIS Cup. The club’s new manager would, as well.
Strachan’s counterpart, Terry Butcher, has his own mistakes to put right, notably last season’s error-strewn 5-1 defeat in the final of the same competition to Rangers. “We played the occasion rather than the game,” said Butcher. Some 1,500 Motherwell fans were still at Fir Park that night to welcome the team home. “It’s a bit cheesy, but we owe them for that,” added Butcher. “We got a hammering and that hurt a lot. You don’ t want to get to a final and be mashed.”
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The Motherwell player selected by the competition’s sponsors to discuss the tie was Brian McLean, on loan from Rangers, but the first words he uttered said everything about what never being asked to play a minute’s football for the Ibrox club has done to his confidence. “Is it me you want to speak to or do you want somebody else?” he asked, guardedly. Rangers have said they will review his position at the end of the season when his contract expires, but he has made up his mind about them: he wants to stay at Motherwell.
Butcher spotted him playing against his side for a Rangers XI in a closed-doors bounce game at Murray Park last August and is in talks with Rangers to complete a permanent transfer. “There’s a lot more to come from him,” said Butcher. “He’s got all the attributes to be a top-class centre-half. I’d like to get a deal done because I’m sure he’ll attract the interest of a lot of other people.” McLean’ s problem was not playing. It got so bad it even swayed his decision over his international future. When the Northern Ireland under-21s invited the Glasgow-born defender to take up the link of a Ballymena grandfather, Jack Campbell, his choice was made for him. “I was just playing reserve football at Rangers so any game I could play in, I wanted to,” said McLean, who has since joined the full Northern Ireland squad. “At least people know who I am now. Being at Motherwell has raised my profile.”
Strachan was coy as to whether Celtic could go on and claim the CIS Cup in March. “You never know,” he shrugged. “After the first couple of games we played this season [Artmedia and the 4-4 Premierleague draw at Motherwell], would you expect us to have gone 10 points clear in the league?” You wouldn’t have done. Celtic’s season has been a tale of the unexpected. What we don’t know yet is whether it is going to be a success story.