Tears flow at Celtic after the tragic loss of Tommy Burns, a club legend

GORDON Strachan choked back tears at a mournful Celtic Park as he paid a poignant and heartfelt tribute to Tommy Burns yesterday.

As Scottish football awoke to the desperate news of Burns' death from cancer at the age of 51, Strachan struggled to control his own grief at an emotive media conference inside the stadium.

While a carpet of floral and football memorabilia related tributes grew outside, the Celtic manager spoke movingly and with genuine warmth of his affection for his former rival whom he appointed to his first-team coaching staff on his arrival at the club in 2005.

Strachan spent time at Burns' bedside late on Wednesday afternoon, just hours before he passed away in the early hours of yesterday morning. An embrace between the pair summed up the bond they had forged, in contrast to the fierce rivalry they established as combatants for Aberdeen and Celtic three decades ago.

Burns came to be Strachan's most trusted lieutenant and, according to the manager, he would not have been able to cope with the demands of the job without the counsel he provided.

"The best part of coming to Celtic, above everything else in what has been a fantastic journey, has been to call Tommy Burns my friend for the last three years," said Strachan. "That's no disrespect to the club, but being Tommy's mate has been the best part of joining Celtic.

"The most important thing I did when I came here was make Tommy first-team coach. Through his intelligence, common sense and humour, he made me understand what Glasgow was all about. If I didn't have him, I would have gone off my head. He kept me sane at times.

"It was just a privilege to be in his company every day. When you lose one of your relatives, it is painful, but you may not have seen them every day. But Tommy has been part of my life every day for three years and that's why I'm taking it pretty hard at the moment."

While Burns will be remembered for his considerable gifts as a vibrant and technically gifted midfield player for Celtic, it is his widely recognised human qualities which Strachan will cherish most fondly. "There were not many footballers better than Tommy, but as a person he was top of the league when it comes to being a man," he added. "He wasn't a guy to go on about what he did in football, he was too busy helping other people.

"Even yesterday when I was with him, his faith was incredible. All he was interested in was making sure his wife Rosemary and the kids were all right and that I was all right. He wasn't thinking about himself. The last thing he did was make his family strong.

"Typical of Tommy, we still managed to have a laugh even just 14 or 15 hours before his death. When I was giving him a hug, I said to him that if the Celtic and Aberdeen fans 30 years ago could have seen us now, they wouldn't have believed it. But that's the type of man he was. He could change from us kicking lumps out of each other 30 years ago to someone I am now missing as badly as I've ever missed anyone.

"If you judge people on being a man, then he is the world champion. He radiated. Every time he walked into a room, no matter how you were feeling, you felt better when he was about. We have missed him being about the place during his illness. It's not the same."

Strachan and his equally distraught players now face the task of dealing with the untimely loss of Burns in a manner which allows them to prepare properly for their final SPL fixture of the season against Dundee United at Tannadice next Thursday, a game which may yet see them win a third successive championship.

"I can't think about that just now," said Strachan. "All of us will know how lucky we were that Tommy was a part of our life. He showed us that football is a poor second to family."