Who is Gavin Strachan? Celtic coach latest to be linked to Hartlepool hot seat

It’s now already been a month since Hartlepool reluctantly lost Dave Challinor to Stockport.

Four straight League Two defeats have since only highlighted the need for the club to get a new manager in sharpish, with the club now down in 17th.

An abundance of bosses have already been linked to the job; from Andy Woodman and Fabrizio Ravanelli, to Pete Wild and Jonathan Woodgate.

The latter emerged as the new odds-on favourite last Friday, only for yet another name to replace him at the top of the betting, Gavin Strachan (42), who is now as short as 1/6.

Below we take a look at Strachan’s managerial and coaching background…

Famous Father

Yes, as you can probably tell by the surname, Gavin has a rather famous managerial father: Gordon Strachan.

Gordon managed the likes of Scotland, Celtic, Coventry, Southampton and Middlesbrough, winning three league titles and three domestic cups during his time at Celtic.

The 64-year-old has since been working as a Technical Director at Dundee which he’s recently combined with a consultancy role at former club Celtic.

Coaching Background

UEFA Pro Licence holder Strachan spent time at Peterborough as a youth team manager and first team coach, before he moved into management in 2015 with Ilkeston - more on that in a moment.

Strachan took up an assistant manager role at Doncaster under Darren Ferguson - son of another rather famous manager, Sir Alex - and helped the club win promotion to League One. 

He had a spell working as Watford’s PDP Football coach, only to then reunite with Ferguson at Peterborough.

Venture into management

Strachan’s first, and so far only, managerial role came at Evo-Stik NPL Premier side Ilkeston back in 2015.

36 at the time, he replaced Kevin Wilson but spent less than five months in the job as he was quickly lured over to League One side Doncaster where he was reunited with Ferguson.

Strachan left the non-league side in the top half of the table with five wins and five draws from 10 games at the helm.

Move to Celtic

Strachan followed in his father’s footsteps and joined Celtic in the summer of 2020. But not as manager, as first team coach under Neil Lennon who actually played under Gordon.

Strachan replaced coach Damien Duff who left the club after taking up a position with the Republic of Ireland.

Celtic failed to make it to 10 titles in a row last season as Steven Gerrard’s Rangers won the title. It was their first trophyless season since 2010.

Mid-way through the season Strachan found himself directly in charge of Celtic for two matches when Lennon, assistant John Kennedy and 13 first team players had to self-isolate following the infamous Dubai training camp. The makeshift side drew 1-1 with Hibernian, then 0-0 with Livingston.

Meanwhile, Strachan’s frequent use of a laptop in the dugout is something he comically played homage to in the club’s new Christmas advert…

An alternative career?

If Strachan ever wanted to take a break from coaching or managing, then he could decide to write about them instead having previously attained a Bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism at Staffordshire University.

“My thinking was that I was getting to the end of my career at Notts County, I had had lots of injuries and had to think about what I was going to do at the end of my playing career,” he previously told The Scotsman.

“So I did a degree in journalism and enjoyed it. I just found out that when I stopped playing there weren’t as many opportunities as I had expected. I then thought about being a coach, although I wasn’t sure if I’d like it. But I loved it and that’s the direction I decided to go. I haven’t looked back.”