Adam Virgo, unfortunately, didn’t get to have much of an impact for Celtic under Gordon Strachan.
Signed in 2005, the ex-Brighton man had injury issues to contend with [BBC]. Unable to enjoy a full pre-season, it was a fight from the start for the English defender.
Nominally signed as a right-back, with a view to playing in the middle, Virgo had real adaptability and versatility to his game. Unfortunately for Virgo, Gordon Strachan would add the likes of Paul Telfer and Du Wei to the ranks, limiting the Englishman’s playing time.
Virgo spoke to Football CFB about his experiences with Gordon Strachan. He said:
“Gordon’s an interesting character, I think. On the TV, he comes across as a personality, but he’s quite a shy guy, deep down. On a one-to-one basis, he’s very, very nervous, and he doesn’t have that interaction with you. But when he goes into the media, people find him very, very funny.
“He’s a fantastic coach. He’s a very, very good coach. A lot of what I do now in terms of my coaching, is what I learnt from him.
“His attention-to-detail was very, very good. His record speaks for itself up there. He probably did better than Martin O’Neill, but I think he always had this Marmite relationship with the fans. I don’t think Martin had that.
Adam Virgo explains difficult Celtic spell under Gordon Strachan
Virgo was almost immediately frustrated by the mixed messages from his manager. Gordon Strachan made promises he couldn’t keep, according to the ex-Celtic man.
Virgo expanded [Football CFB]:
“When you’re playing catch-up, then you’re thrown on up front, and then you start centre midfield, then centre-half, then right back, then you come on again up front… you can’t get any stability in the side. You can’t get any real momentum going. You wanna make a good impression.
“The thing that killed me, was I think Gordon was using me as a utility player. I had a one-off season at Brighton as a striker, but… I was nowhere near good enough to be a striker for that football club.
“Playing catch-up, then just constantly playing in different positions… You imagine Shane Duffy going to Celtic like I did, he plays his first game centre midfield, then Lenny plays him up front for twenty minutes, you’re never going to settle within a football club.
“After October, I was knocking on [Strachan’s] door going ‘what the hell is going on?’.
“We very rarely lost games, so it was difficult for me then to go and knock on his door and say ‘why am I not playing’. But it was kind of frustrating.
“Then, the season progresses on, and he says to me ‘I know it’s been frustrating so far, but come January, when Bobo [Balde] goes to the African Cup of Nations, you’re going to get your chance’. The first game in January was against Clyde, and he played Du Wei instead of me.
“That was really the start of the breakdown of him and I’s relationship.”
Interesting insight into incredibly transitional season
The Gordon Strachan reign may have ended with plenty of silverware, but there were some bizarre signings and results that gave Celtic supporters the absolute fear.
Seemingly, Strachan had the full confidence of the Celtic board to sign nearly anyone he wanted. We recently reflected on Du Wei’s time at the club, and his signing exemplifies the scattergun approach of the time.
Clearly, there were victims of that methodology, and Adam Virgo was one of them. While Gordon Strachan can be a divisive character, it’s good to hear from one of his ex-players who didn’t have the status of Scott McDonald or Stephen McManus, for example.
READ MORE: Poor Olivier Ntcham – is it time to recall the midfielder?
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