Debut: 1-1 draw vs Watford (scored once), August 28th 1984
League Record: 155 games (+5 as sub), 33 goals
Sold to: Leeds United (£300,000), March 1989
After his first year in charge, when he made some great signings like Bryan Robson, Frank Stapleton and Arnold Muhren, Ron Atkinson soon lost the plot when it came to the transfer market. A succession of signings in the mid 80s never came close to working out - Peter Barnes, Terry Gibson and Alan Brazil – spring to mind. Gordon Strachan, however, was a quality bit of recruitment.
Strachan made a name for himself with Dundee and, more prominently, Aberdeen, where he was key part of a team that broke the Old Firm dominance. A team managed by some young(ish) chap called Alex Ferguson. By 1984, though, Fergie’s tricky right winger was looked for pastures new and arranged a move to Cologne, signing a pre-contract before United made a cheeky last minute bid which he found preferable. Aberdeen were not impressed, and we had to pay some compo to the German team.
As a much needed replacement for Steve Coppell, who had been forced to retire from injury the previous year, aged only 28, Strachan was an immediate success. He scored 16 league goals in his first season and was our penalty taker until a couple of misses saw him loss his bottle. The previous season (83/84) had seen us use short-term cover Arthur Graham, a real old-fashioned hit-and-run winger and effective enough with it. Strachan, however, was armed with quick footwork, a eye for a killer pass and no shortage of guile: for a good example, watch his fine work setting up Mark Hughes for the winning goal in the FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool in 1985.
There were several factors contributing to our sharp decline of form through the autumn of 1985, meaning a decent lead gathered from winning the first ten games of the season was all but eroded by Christmas. One was Gordon Strachan shagging his shoulder when he collided with the post after scoring at West Brom. The momentum began to stall and by the time he returned, the first defeat of the season at Sheffield Wednesday was followed by a kicking down at Leicester. The second half of the season saw our title-winning form translate into a run more suited to relegation candidates and when Atkinson failed to address the problems in the opening months of the next season, he found himself picking up his P45.
Bearing in mind the animosity of his leaving Aberdeen, you have to wonder, then, how the smaller Scotsman felt when Ferguson rocked up as the new United boss. Initially, it seemed hatchets were buried as Strachan was a regular for a couple of years. His best moment came in the 3-3 draw at Liverpool in the Spring in 1988 when our man strolled through on goal and slotted home a (at the time) unlikely equaliser after which he coolly feigned smoking a cigar in front of an enraged Kop.
The next season saw a real lack of form in the team, and Strachan struggled for goals. In Fergie’s autobiography, he pinpoints the 1989 FA cup quarter-final vs Nottingham Forest as a crucial moment. Looking to big up his right winger, he tells the press Strachan is a key man if we were to win. As it turned out, he was dominated by left back Stuart Pearce and we lost 1-0, albeit not helped by the referee not noticing a Brian McClair shot clearly crossing the line. That caused the eight-year-old me not shortage of anguish, I can tell you.
Around this time, according to the boss, he tried to arrange a move to a French club that fell through. Somewhat unimpressed, especially after he’d pulled the same trick to get a move from Aberdeen, the Boss binned him off, probably hoping to see the back of him for good. Ron Atkinson had just taken over at Sheffield Wednesday and was very keen to take Strachan off our hands, but Fergie instead sent him to Leeds, perhaps feeling it best given they had been hanging around the second division for most of the 80s.
Alas, like Johnny Giles to Matt Busby, wee Gordon had the best revenge of all. His new manager, Howard Wilkinson, made him captain and creative fulcrum of the side, which he led to promotion in 1989/90. The next year, he was Footballer of the Year and the one after that, he led them to the championship at our expense: not something that endeared him to a lot of Reds, myself included.
It was telling that with his advancing years (he was 35 in 1992, though he was still playing in the top flight for Coventry past his 40th birthday) naturally lessening his impact on the pitch, Leeds then faded as a force as they struggled to replace him, much the same as we did.
Since his legs finally packed in, he’s had a hot/cold career in management with stints at Southampton, Celtic and Middlesbrough, perhaps overshadowing that work with a neat line in witticisms.
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