'Why is this fanny dressing like a cowboy when he comes from Scotland?'

Ok, you can stop holding your breath, part two of the Gordon Strachan interview is finally here...

During his managerial career in England, Strachan viewed the press with some suspicion but his off-the-cuff answers to questions posed on camera directly after a game often provided moments of real hilarity. ‘A quick word Gordon?’...’Velocity.’ ‘This might be a stupid question Gordon?’…’You’re right, it is.’ Two examples of the many one-liners he delighted football fans with over the years. After almost 20 years of exile in England, the Scot could not resist the lure of Celtic when they came calling and he returned to his roots for the first time since leaving Aberdeen in 1984.

It was during this period, however, that his relationship with the press became rather more fractitious, the comedy banter with interviewers became less frequent, a more obstinate, almost angry, Gordon Strachan emerged. Was it the pressure of managing in the goldfish bowl of Scotland, where every aspect of Old Firm life is ruthlessly dissected by a press and public who seemingly have a never ending appetite for anything connected to the powerhouses of the national game?

I wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth but getting the diminutive ex-Celtic manger to open up could prove difficult. “It’s nothing personal against you, I just don’t talk about a club when I leave. I just do my job, and when it’s time to leave I say thank you very much and I am gone. I have done that at all my clubs, not just Celtic.” I think that might be a hint. Changing tack, I ask what has filled his days since he left his post in Glasgow and his face and manner instantly soften. “I have just been spending time with the wife and family, which has been great. We have done a lot of travelling, which I did when I left Southampton, and went and experienced new things. It’s fantastic.”

Could it be, I venture somewhat cautiously, that the pressures of management could make a man seek a break from the game from time to time? “No, the pressure of management has nothing to do with it”. He shoots the reply in a heartbeat and I deduce I may have touched a nerve. “The thing about management," Strachan is leaning on the table, becoming more animated, "is that we are paid to deal with the pressure. Football management isn’t a pressurised job to me. I love football but I am not obsessed by it. I can leave the game behind me and come home and think about something else, it doesn’t consume me."

"Here’s a story for you.” He is in full flow now. “Steve McLaren phoned me once when he was in charge of England and he was having a tough time at that point. And I said to him, ‘Do you get well paid?’ and he says ‘yes’. So I say to him, ‘why do you think you get well paid? It’s not because you pick the team, we would all love to work with the Lampards and the Gerrards. That bit is easy. You know why you get well paid? It’s because of all the crap you have to deal with. The higher you progress in management, the more you get paid but you also have to deal with more rubbish, that is why they pay you more.” The Scot chuckles at the memory of the conversation.

It’s a typically forthright view from Strachan, the same sort of plain speaking that endears him to fans in his role as a pundit.  A vivid picture is instantly formed in my mind. McLaren, standing on the touchline, a ‘wally with a brolly’, with Strachan’s words of wisdom and the venom of the Wembley crowd ringing in his ears. I wonder if poor Steve thought he was being paid enough that night?

Part 3 on Monday folks. Sorry to leave you hanging for the whole weekend but try and amuse yourselves by getting wrecked or going to Church or something like that.