WE'RE NO FALL GUYS

GORDON STRACHAN insists he is too professional and too competitive to ever consider throwing a game.

There is a frequently-voiced conspiracy theory that even Celtic fans would have no objection to a Hearts win at Tynecastle tomorrow because it would edge them closer to a second-place finish and the Champions League, while at the same time denying Rangers a multimillion pound windfall to assist Paul Le Guen's re-building programme at Ibrox.

The Celtic boss isn't offended by the suggestion that he would indulge in what is effectively match rigging.

But his professional pride is dented by the very idea that he would betray everything he has stood for in the game.

Strachan said: "Does anybody seriously think that everything I have worked to perfect since I left school, the dedication, the motivation, the determination and the competitve edge born of countless matches, would be dumped for a day?

"Does anybody really believe I would stand aside to make it easy for one team to screw up another?

"If I don't win, or the performance is mediocre, I don't feel good about myself or my team. It's not my concern what happens to another club between now and the end of the season.

"I'm not offended by what's being said about our game at Tynecastle but I know that the people who are saying these things have never been competitors in their lives before."

Strachan is so opposed to the idea of fielding a weakened side he refuses to reward any of the players who've won the championship for the club at Under-19 and Under-21 level.

Part of the reason for playing managerial hard-ball is that Strachan won't have any accusatory fingers pointed at him during this period of near hysterical ranting about matches being given up to suit the outcome of the European race.

Another explanation is that the man voted Manager of the Year by the Scottish Football Writers' Association last weekend won't encourage headlines that he failed to provide an inspirational lead and instead cast suspicion over his team's performance.

But the bottom line is that Strachan believes the ownership of a Celtic first-team jersey is something that should be earned and not handed out to make up the numbers in supposedly meaningless fixtures after the title has already been won.

That's why the only so-called fringe players who will be in evidence when Celtic go to Tynecastle tomorrow will be firmly established members of a first-team squad that has sustained the club throughout this season.

And Strachan would defy anyone to argue with him over the fact that Celtic's displays have been anything less than consummately professional since Hearts were beaten 1-0 in Glasgow on April 5 to secure his first major prize as a manager.

He said: "You could ask the people we've played against since then - Jim Jefferies, Tony Mowbray and Alex McLeish - and they would tell you that we have never given less than our best as a unit.

"Having said that, I'm not going to deny that, subconsciously, some players may have switched off since the title became a mathematical certainty earlier this month.

"Maybe they're less inclined to make that five-yard run, this way or that, which they would have done when we were still chasing the prize.

"Maybe they used to go to bed every afternoon and get proper rest, which they've stopped doing over the last three weeks.

"That's why I have to give it very careful thought before I finalise the most competitive team I can come up with for the game at Tynecastle.

"But there's no temptation on my part to go to the Under- 19s or the 21s and pluck players from there for this occasion. I need all of them to know that they need to work even harder than they have done in order to get a Celtic jersey.

"My team in Edinburgh will be full of the easily recognised faces of those who went there on New Year's Day and won the game that was the turning point in the championship."

Celtic went from being two down to 3-2 winners. Hearts never recovered from that psychological blow and that is why the Tynecastle club are fighting to hold off Rangers' challenge for second place in the table - and also why all the conspiracy theories have started flying about.

Strachan has returned to Scotland this season after more than two decades spent in the less frenetic atmosphere of English football to find a world no different to the one he left behind.

He said: "I remember playing for Aberdeen on the last day of the league season in 1982. If we had scored six goals against Rangers and Celtic had slipped up against St Mirren it was possible for us to pip them for the title.

"Aberdeen were four up without reply at Pittodrie at half-time and it was goalless at Celtic Park. But then Rangers threw a blanket over their goal and we failed to reach our own target.

"Celtic won 3-0 in the end and our crowd booed us off the park."

In other words, nothing surprises Strachan about the country of his birth. And he won't fan the flames of controversy by leaving Celtic exposed to any allegations of unfair conduct this weekend.

He said: "Look at where we're going on Sunday. Tynecastle is a place where the game is played at a high tempo with lots of bumping and crashing going on. You can't do complacency in those cramped surroundings.

"The way we played there the last time didn't say much about our ability, but it spoke volumes for the depth of character we have in our locker.

"It'll be the same this time because I wouldn't dare field somebody I was uncertain over in case it got a fellow manager upset. There is a need to show professional respect at all times.

Taken from the Daily Record