strachan has a hard act to follow

After five extraordinary years Martin O'Neill has departed Celtic Park and Wee Gordon Strachan (hereafter WGS) has been invited to occupy the hot seat in the manager's office. Whereas MON was walking on stage after John Barnes' Friday night at the Glasgow Empire performance - the graveyard of English comedians - Strachan has a somewhat tougher act to follow. How he proposes to emulate his predecessor who achieved a remarkable level of consistency not seen since the days of Jock Stein is anybody's guess. But O'Neill has raised the bar high and, despite being vertically challenged, WGS reckons he's capable of the job.

What can we expect, then, from the former Coventry and Southampton coach?

Given his previous history, the after match quotes, if nothing else, should be entertaining, but it's going to take more than an inexhaustible supply of witty one-liners to mollify a support that has been tantalised with Champions League football in the course of the last five years.

He had a mixed record at his two previous clubs. He did well to keep Coventry, a team with limited resources, in the Premiership for so long before they eventually succumbed to the inevitable and were relegated which led to his departure. At Southampton he took them to an FA Cup Final, into Europe and steered them to top 10 finishes in the Premiership before resigning citing bad health as the reason. Not a great record, not a bad record.

Some Celtic supporters have expressed disappointment at his appointment. Not this one; I'm looking forward to seeing how he does.

Firstly, though, I would hope that he would have access to greater resources at Celtic than at his two previous clubs and as a result - given his fair share of luck - I'd fully expect him to deliver trophies on a regular basis as well as continuing to build on the relative European success MON delivered over the last few seasons.

He strikes me as being optimistic and enthusiastic about confronting the challenge that lies ahead. He has already set about making long overdue changes to the playing squad and, miracle of miracles, has actually signed players some under the Bosman ruling. Long before the transfer deadline as well. Changed days indeed.

Signings would seem to be one area where his approach will be markedly different to his predecessor. WGS seems to be more imaginative in his approach to signing players than MON. MON always seemed to take an ultra conservative approach when it came to signings, relying on the tried and trusted pros from the top divisions in England or from the middle reaches of the SPL. Strachan has already shown that nationality will be no impediment; if he thinks a player is good enough to wear the Hoops he will go for him irrespective of where he is from. Given the rumours that are circulating at the current time that may even include players from China and Japan.

I'd like to think that not only is he thinking tactically, but he's also working strategically with the board here to maximise potential revenue in what for Celtic are as yet untapped markets in the Far East.

Strachan has also stressed that fitness and pace will be attributes he would wish his team to have. Considering the number of games we lost to late goals last season an increase in fitness -mental as well as physical - would surely meet with the approval of all of us. A recurring criticism of MON's team was that they were slow. Strachan's first signings - Aliadiere, Camara and Zurawski - all look as if they have pace to burn. Let's hope they have the ability to go with it.

It promises to be an interesting season, even though it may turn out to be one of transition where the manager lays the foundations for a more credible challenge for trophies starting next season.

Yet, even if this is acknowledged, there will still be a level of expectation among the fans that the team, with all its new players, will be able to gel straight away and start performing to the same level as in previous years under O'Neill. But to me this will be a season of rebuilding, one with no guarantees of a League Championship or a good European run.

In my opinion expectations really need to be a bit more realistic, with the hope that we may be surprised. It may be that if we can win the league this season that would be a bonus. Before fellow supporters view the above scenario as being unduly pessimistic they should perhaps pause to reflect that Rangers won the league twice in the last three seasons during a period when Celtic led by MON were supposed to be dominant.

Patience may be required this season while WGS commences rebuilding the team. He has a difficult job on his hands, let's hope that he gets the time and the resources to make a success of it

. GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE