Gordon David Strachan ( born 9 February 1957) is a Scottish former football coach and player who is currently Technical Director of Dundee. He played for Dundee, Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and Coventry City, as well as the Scotland national team. He has since managed Coventry City, Southampton, Celtic, Middlesbrough and Scotland.
In club football, Strachan played 635 league games, scoring a total of 138 goals, playing 21 of 25 career seasons in either the English or Scottish top-flight. In international football Strachan earned 50 caps, scoring five goals and played in two FIFA World Cup final tournaments, Spain 82 and Mexico 86. Strachan retired from playing in 1997 at age 40, setting a Premier League record for an outfield player.
A right-sided midfielder, Strachan made his senior debut in 1974 with Dundee before moving on within Scotland, to spend seven seasons at Aberdeen. He first played for the Scotland national team in 1980. While at Aberdeen Strachan won multiple domestic league and cup honours in the early 1980s, as well as the 1982–83 European Cup Winners' Cup and 1983 European Super Cup. Moving to England, Strachan won the 1985 FA Cup final in five seasons with Manchester United. He spent the next seven seasons as club captain at Leeds, winning the 1989–90 Second Division and 1991–92 First Division league titles. He played his last game for Scotland in 1992. He moved to Coventry in 1995 for a final three seasons, as a player-coach.
Strachan became full-time manager of Coventry when the incumbent Ron Atkinson was appointed as director of football. Strachan spent five years as manager of Coventry, but was dismissed in 2001 after the club was relegated from the top-flight for the first time in 34 years. He returned to the Premier League as Southampton manager and guided the "Saints" to the 2003 FA Cup final, where they lost 1–0 to Arsenal. Strachan resigned from Southampton in 2004 and took a 16-month break from management. He returned to Scotland to become manager of Celtic, where he achieved three successive league titles and other domestic cup wins. Strachan left Celtic in May 2009 after failing to win a fourth title. He then became manager of Middlesbrough in the English Championship, but left the club after an unsuccessful 12 months in the job. Strachan then managed the Scotland national team for five years, but was unable to secure qualification for a major tournament.
Strachan was named as FWA Footballer of the Year for the 1990–91 season while at Leeds. He was also named Manager of the Year in Scotland several times by writers and players while at Celtic. In 2007, Strachan was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame. He is the father of Craig Strachan and Gavin Strachan and the grandfather of Luke Strachan, all of whom were also footballers.
Strachan was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1993 New Year Honours for services to association football.
Born and raised in Muirhouse, Edinburgh, Strachan supported Hibernian as a boy. His father, Jim, worked as a scaffolder, and his mother, Catherine, worked at a whisky distillery. At age 15, he damaged his vision playing football on the school playground when a pen in his pocket became lodged in his right eye; the pen came within "a thousandth of an inch" of permanently costing him the vision in his eye. He was offered a contract by Hibernian manager Eddie Turnbull, but his father decided against the offer after stating the club did not pay sufficient expenses for footwear.
Strachan began his career with Dundee, having decided to sign with the Scottish club at age 14. In joining the club, he rejected an approach from Manchester United, reasoning he had a better chance to establish himself in the first team at Dens Park. His natural talent was immediately apparent, and he quickly earned a reputation as an outstanding player in the second team, twice winning the Scottish Reserve Player of the Year Award. He made his mark as an 18-year-old when he outplayed Alan Ball in a friendly with Arsenal in August 1975; The Sunday Post compared him to a young Billy Bremner. Strachan became a regular player in the 1975–76 season, the inaugural season of the Scottish Premier Division, featuring in 17 of the club's 36 league matches; however, David White's "Dee" were relegated on the last day of the season after rivals Dundee United edged ahead on goal average with an unlikely draw with champions Rangers.
New boss Tommy Gemmell handed 19-year-old Strachan the captaincy for the 1976–77 First Division campaign, and he remains the youngest player to have captained Dundee. Strachan considers his performance as captain as very poor. "I was a pathetic Billy Bremner. I wanted to go about bumping into people, growling at people, shouting at people. And I forgot to be a footballer." The club failed to shine in the lower divisions, and Strachan lost his first-team place early in the 1977–78 season following a drinking session with Jimmy Johnstone; Gemmell was also concerned that Strachan was "getting kicked a lot" after opposition teams worked out that the way to stop Dundee was to take out their playmaker. Strachan decided to leave Dundee as the club seemed unlikely to win back their top-flight status; the Dundee chairman was also keen on cashing in his most prized asset, and told Gemmell that "we need £50,000 by Friday or the banks are closing the gate". His last match for Dundee was on 26 October 1977 in a 6–0 defeat in the League Cup to Queen of the South at Palmerston Park, which Strachan described in his autobiography as "embarrassing".
Strachan was signed by Aberdeen manager Billy McNeill in November 1977 for a fee of £50,000 plus Jim Shirra. Poor form and niggling injuries made 1977–78 a mediocre season for Strachan, though the club went on to finish second in the Scottish Premier Division. He was not picked for the 1978 Scottish Cup Final defeat to Rangers. Strachan did win the Scottish 2nd XI Cup with the reserves in 1978.
McNeill left the Pittodrie Stadium for Celtic in summer 1978, and Alex Ferguson was appointed as the new manager. Strachan played at Hampden Park in the 1979 League Cup defeat to Rangers, and set up Duncan Davidson for the game's opening goal. Though the 1978–79 campaign was a disappointment, Aberdeen went on to win the league title in 1979–80 after closing a ten-point deficit over Celtic with a late run that included two victories at Celtic Park. They again reached the League Cup Final, beating both Old Firm sides en route, where they lost 3–0 to Dundee United at Dens Park. At the end of the season, Strachan was elected SFWA Footballer of the Year. After gaining assurance Alex McLeish would also stay with the club, Strachan signed a new contract to keep him at Pittodrie until 1984.
Aberdeen could only manage a second-place finish in 1980–81, as Celtic regained the league title. Aberdeen exited the European Cup in the second round with defeat to eventual champions Liverpool; manager Bob Paisley said Strachan would become "Britain's first £2 million player", in what was a (successful) early attempt at mind games. He missed the second half of the season with a muscle tear in his stomach. With fit-again Strachan on the right flank – supported by full-back Stuart Kennedy – and record signing Peter Weir on the left-flank, Aberdeen mounted a genuine title challenge in 1981–82, but had to settle for second place to Celtic. They did though lift the Scottish Cup with a 4–1 extra-time victory over Rangers, with Strachan contributing one assist and one goal.
The 1982–83 campaign was the greatest in the history of the club, and Strachan made his mark early on with four goals in a 5–1 victory at former club Dundee in the League Cup. Despite only finishing third in the league (albeit only one point behind champions and New Firm rivals Dundee United) and exiting the League Cup in the quarter-finals, Aberdeen won the Scottish Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup. The club's European success came with a 2–1 after-extra-time victory over Spanish giants Real Madrid at Ullevi in Gothenburg. The Scottish Cup came with a 1–0 win over Rangers. The "Dons" continued their success by delivering the league title and Scottish Cup in 1983–84, with Strachan setting up Mark McGhee for the winning goal in the cup final win over Celtic. This completed a unique treble, as they defeated Hamburger SV in the 1983 European Super Cup.