THE THREE PRIZE MEN

Strachan runs the rule over the gaffers at the heart of thrilling title showdown

- BY CRAIG SWAN

GORDON STRACHAN had to follow in the footsteps of Martin O'Neill by taking titles to Celtic.

Twenty-two years after the last of O'Neill's three triumphs, the 73-year-old is in another scrap for the flag. And this time it's Derek McInnes and Danny Rohl and not Alex McLeish who are in the run-in battle with the Parkhead gaffer.

Strachan did indeed emulate O'Neill by winning a trio of his own titles in Glasgow and knows the returning hero has the nous and CV to add a fourth.

But he also sees highly-impressive traits in both McInnes and Rohl. Strachan said: "They all know the game in different ways. Martin because of the way he thinks about the game, his man-management, you can see the difference when he goes in. He's clever at seeing the basics of things.

"Derek is similar. He understands what wins games. Derek's always had that in his locker. He has never philosophised.

"You get young coaches, we do this, we do that, we try to do this, we try to do that, our project is this.

"With Derek, it’s let’s win games of football, whether it’s Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, because you see when he leaves anywhere, most clubs are then saying: ‘We want a philosophy'.

"No, you had one before, you had a guy who had a philosophy that he just keeps winning. Why not stick to it?