What Strachan says

Andre Villas-Boas lost his job at Chelsea at the weekend after less than a season in charge; how hard is it for a manager to come into a big job where you are expected to deliver instant results, like you would have been at Celtic?

I went to Celtic when I was 47 or something like that and I had the grounding. I was a captain for a long time, and I had to deal with people as a captain at Leeds who were all different characters. My relationship with the manager was first class. Then you go into management, coaching, and I did that. You never know the job 100 per cent, but I only thought I was capable of doing the job in my late 40s. And only then because I was older as a person; I had seen things and done things. At 34, you ask anybody in any job if they know life, and the problems dealing with the people and situations. You never get any of that in coaching courses. You have to deal with problems, and it's only when you get to 50 or something that you have dealt with a lot of problems.

That's why people talk about Sir Alex Ferguson or Harry Redknapp - they are really dealing with people now and they are not called coaches, they are called managers. At the Chelsea level you are dealing with people rather than coaching. I am certain that AVB is one of the best coaches in the world, and that is not a problem, but at 34 do you know people? Do you know how to deal with them? That was my problem with it, the bit that was so difficult; having that experience to deal with people who are insecure, they are worried about their age, they are worried about their position, they are worried about their strength at the club. I had a similar situation when I went to Celtic but I was old enough to deal with that problem, and that is what you get when you have been in the game for a long time, and that is what you have to deal with at a club like Chelsea.

Dealing with chairman, dealing with chief execs ... you have to go through a lot of arguments and problems with these guys before you actually know how to deal with it. You need life experience when you are dealing with a big club like Chelsea. My son is 34 , he is Youth Team manager at Peterborough and he is now finding what it is like to deal with people and their problems. He is 34, at Peterborough United handling challenges and solving day to day problems.... imagine being 34 and dealing with Chelsea's players and Chelsea's chairman. I would have hated to deal with something like that at 34. I could not have done it.