The Tam Cowan and Gordon Strachan Celtic wind-up

Tam Cowan found himself in the spotlight on Saturday, helping to boost his wacky career as an After Dinner Speaker. Dinner time is a real favourite for the BBC Scotland presenter.

On Tuesday night, the evening after Brendan Rodgers resigned Tam had an event lined up with Gordon Strachan in Blackfrairs in the Merchant City.

HO HO HO, HOW WE LAUGHED

Everyone knows the script. Strachan tells tales about what a funny guy he is. How much he dislikes the media the contempt he has for them.

Throw in some booze and swearies and everyone is a winner. It seems that there is a market for these events. Tuesday night with Strachan and Cowan.

All week Rodgers’ resignation and the car crash statement on the Celtic website from Dermot Desmond has dominated the news.

Strachan has various roles and connections in this. Two of his sons are employed by Celtic, Gavin was one of only two coaching survivors from Monday night.

John Kennedy, Jack Lyons, Adam Sadler and Glen Driscoll left. Gordon’s boy stayed on. The other, Craig Strachan is Celtic’s Head of European Scouting, whatever that entails.

On Off The Ball on Radio Scotland Cowan started to talk too much. These ‘nights with’ are strictly off camera, they are behind closed doors. Strachan will use language that he wouldn’t use while on telly. Strictly no mobile phones and running to the newspapers.

THE BIG STORY…

It was too much for Cowan to resist. The Daily Record and others listening to Off The Ball picked up on him saying:

This was on the Tuesday night, Gordon is a bit of a Celtic legend, knows all the main characters in this story on the board.

He’s been the former Celtic manager and his son Gavin has apparently survived the nuclear bomb that went off.

So Gordon is clearly in the know, he’s one of the most outspoken people in football that I know, particularly at a ‘private event’. Even then, he was ever so slightly cagey.

But he won’t mind me sharing this because he did with the audience… according to Gordon Strachan, the guy Celtic are after they won’t be able to get him until December.

Now joining the dots with that, the closest that we all came to was Craig Bellamy, an international manager just now, in terms of when the qualifiers finish although there could be playoffs after that.

Bellany will almost certainly have a World Cup Play Off to prepare for in March. About the only way that Wales can miss out is if they fail to take points from Liechtenstein away and North Macedonia at home. If that happens Bellamy may find himself out of a job. In short the December timeline doesn’t suit.

THE STRACHAN LINKS

Strachan is well connected at Celtic, he has his own senior contacts and Gavin feeding him news.

However, in the 24 hours between Rodgers resigning and mug punters turning up at Blackfriars no-one was spilling the beans to Dundee’s Director of Football.

The man that has appointed Mark McGhee and Steven Pressley as manager at Dens Park.

Celtic were very busy on Monday and Tuesday.

Shaun Maloney, another Strachan contact was in at the sharp end, bringing in Mark Fotheringham and promoting Stephen McManus while O’Neill charmed the media.

In unison they all reported the claim that completely out of the blue Desmond gave him a phone call, before he had finished his coffee he was back managing Celtic.

Who would have believed it?

EXPECTATION MANAGEMENT

The job of managing Celtic is Maloney’s to lose.

Kieran McKenna, Nicky Hayen and others will be linked, impressive names. Managers on the up.

Strachan and others can speculate over Craig Bellamy.

At Celtic they like to take the easy option. Look at who is the Chairman and CEO.

Maloney on the training ground and O’Neill with the media baloney is the likeliest fit. Cross your fingers and hope for the best.

The December tale serves a purpose. Just like O’Neill’s slip up on radio on Wednesday about how long he’ll be back at Celtic.

Get the fans excited for change initially then push back the likely time frame.

And don’t forget that January is notoriously a difficult transfer window. Unless it was 2022 when you know who was kept out of the picture.

Strachan’s Dundee lost 4-0 to Hearts yesterday. Cowan’s funny stories now appear in the Sunday Post.