Gordon Strachan Team Quotations

I am happy to have him in the squad and, if fit, to train with the first team unless something drastic happens.

When you make those decisions, it is hard because you know you have to let down people who are playing well. I just wish we had that sort of competition everywhere in the team. Two of our best players form-wise have not been getting a game, but I don't have that dilemma elsewhere. The rest of the team really picks itself.

But I remember playing in a team which won ten games on the trot but ended up fourth. I am not saying they're going to do that, but it can happen.

It was hilarious this morning. I actually used it in my team talk. Nobody bothered one little bit. It took our minds off the game for a wee while.

He [Sir Alex Ferguson] used to play tapes of Bill Shankly talking. I remember that and a singer he liked. I don't know who it was but it was crap. He played it on the team bus too, and all the boys hated it. Until one night it got chucked away. If he's still wondering who threw that tape off the bus, it was me. So maybe he was right and I'm not to be trusted.....

The reality, ... is that I need to win games of football. That's where the pressure and the sleepless nights come from. There's a fantasy pressure with this job but none of that matters. I need to make this team into a good unit, need to take it forward, give it a change of pace, need to get it younger and to use the experience of the lads we've got here. I need Lennon and Sutton and people like that to go and show how you handle being a Celtic player.

People talk about how you make team spirit - is it golf days or going out drinking together? That doesn't count. When you drink, you just tell lies to each other anyway and talk rubbish.

I've seen teams spend £150 million and get nowhere near the Champions League. It has taken Manchester City a billion to get there. There are no guarantees.