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‘You are either a decent person or you are a yob. It’s up to you’DARRYL BROADFOOT, Chief Football Writer August 08 2006 Gordon Strachan, the Celtic manager, last night condemned the behaviour of the supporter alleged to have spat at Paul Le Guen during his visit to Tynecastle for Hearts' 2-1 win on Sunday. The Rangers manager was assailed on his way from the stadium to the car park, a schoolyard through which away supporters traditionally disperse, and The Herald understands his car was also targeted. A police spokesman confirmed: "We have heard there was an incident at Tynecastle involving Mr Le Guen." Numerous fans' websites have run threads identifying a Celtic fan as the culprit. Le Guen will not take the matter any further but in an exclusive interview with The Herald, Strachan expressed his abhorrence of such anti-social behaviour and urged the Frenchman to consider the supporter little more than a yob. "That guy, it doesn't matter what strip he has on," said Strachan. "It doesn't matter if he's a Celtic supporter, Rangers supporter or a Motherwell supporter, forget being a supporter, you are a yob. Take the supporter bit away. "I hope, if anything has happened to Paul Le Guen, he doesn't see him as a supporter but as an absolute moron of the highest degree. That's what I hope he sees. I'm like that with all supporters. You are either a decent person or you're a yob. It's up to you how you behave, the strip makes no difference." Strachan also revealed he was the victim of loutish behaviour from a Hearts supporter before the game, while signing autographs on his way into the stadium, and another during the game, whose behaviour he drew to the attention of a police officer. "I went to Hearts yesterday and I signed a lot of autographs, posed for pictures with kids and had a bit of banter but there was this one shouting and screaming. I don't see him as a Hearts supporter, I see him as a yob," said Strachan. The Celtic manager has frank views on the yob culture prevalent in Scottish society and admits he is reluctant to walk the streets near his home, far less visit a public house. "I can but I'm always on my front foot and waiting for something," he said. "I don't go into pubs. I'd love to do it but it's just not possible." In his autobiography, My Life in Football, Strachan revealed an incident at a petrol station not long after his first Old Firm derby, a 3-1 defeat at Ibrox last year. In the company of his wife, Lesley, and his mother-in-law, he was abused by Rangers supporters chanting "three-one, three-one" and despite engaging in conversation, continued to be ridiculed in front of his family. "Forget the supporter bit. That's what I said to the boy in the petrol station," he recalled. "It's yob and daddy yob and the abuse they gave me after that was absolutely frightening. As I was trying to pay they were giving me the w****r sign. It has nothing to do with football. "Same as racism. There is no racism in football. He is a racist in the pub and wherever he goes, he doesn't just walk into the stadium and become a racist. He can hide in there." His predecessor, Martin O'Neill, found a Union flag planted on his front lawn after a derby match and Strachan admitted his life away from Celtic Park consists of short visits to the local video store. He has only visited his home in Southampton, originally intended as an escape from the intensity of Old Firm life, six times in the past year but has learned to cope with the personal sacrifices. "It may be a more relaxed atmosphere down there but the pressure is still the same," he said of his time at Southampton. "I can sit by a river with nobody talking to me, watching the boats go by but the intensity and the pain is still the same. It's aesthetic. It's a better surrounding. Here, because Glasgow's so intense, I need to stay in the house and watch the telly. "It's Dale Winton on a Saturday night. That's what I did last Saturday after the Kilmarnock game. That's it. I don't go out. Lesley went to the St Mirren game with me. She likes football and we like each other's company. It doesn't matter where I am, I feel better when she's round about me." Strachan was also forthright on the Old Firm's combined efforts to tackle the problem of sectarianism. He has been invited to assist in the efforts to eradicate bigoted and discriminatory singing, headed by the Rangers chairman, David Murray, and his Parkhead counterpart, Brian Quinn, but believes football's jurisdiction is limited. He offered an extreme, if impractical, deterrent. "Somebody asked if I would like to help and I said I would love to help out but what can I really do? If they don't listen to mums and dads, if they don't listen to teachers, do you think I can genuinely change their bigotry and racism?" he said. "I will try to lead my life in a way people will look at and say 'well, there's no bigotry and racism there. He treats everybody right'. "I have not seen it too bad. Maybe I don't see it about the streets because I live in a sheltered world, I really do. "There are songs we could do without. If you start these songs, the ones nobody wants to hear, boot the ball in your own net. It's extreme but we don't want that any more," he said.  Taken from the Herald |
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