Aiden McGeady has lifted the lid on the remarkable relationship between Tommy Gravesen and Gordon Strachan during their time together at Celtic.
McGeady has now revealed just how strained things became, including one extraordinary warning from the Celtic manager ahead of a Scottish Cup final.
He said: (Call Yourself a Fan? YouTube), “He was an eccentric character and an unbelievable guy, but I was told I wasn’t allowed to speak to him for a full week once in training, because Strachan hated him.
“Him and Strachan hated each other so much that he basically said to me ‘I don’t ever want to see you speaking to him because he just talks rubbish’.
“He said, ‘I’m going to start you in the Scottish Cup final on Saturday, but if I see you talking to Tommy once this week in training, I’m not starting you’.
“So Tommy’s coming up to me in training and I’m having to dive away for one full week! I managed to start the game.
“He would come and chase me like ‘Come here lad, come here lad’ and I would just run away from him.”
McGeady also recalled Gravesen deliberately winding Strachan up during pre-season fitness training.
“We were doing pre-season, and there were two groups doing a bleep test.
“Tommy was in the first group and he went down early, and we came in the second group and the gaffer came.
“Tommy was fit as, so he was second or third last in and just as we got there he’s running past and he says, ‘Easy this Gordon lad!’ just to annoy him.”
Another story perhaps sums Gravesen up even better.
McGeady said: “I was normally the person that got it off Strachan quite a lot.
“So, coming in at half time and he’s having a go at me about how many touches I’m taking, how many players I’m taking on, I’m losing the ball too often.
“He’s having a proper go at me, and I just look over in the corner and Gravesen’s managed to find a newspaper from somewhere.
“Don’t know where he’s got a newspaper from, but he’s managed to cut holes for the eyes and he’s just sitting in the corner looking at me through the newspaper.”
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