Gordon Strachan has admitted he thought Gary McAllister was a "lunatic" when the midfielder told his then Coventry City manager that Liverpool were interested in him.
McAllister was 35 when he joined the Reds on a free transfer in 2000 in a shock move after his Sky Blues contract expired.
Coventry captain at time of his departure, McAllister had scored an eye-catching 13 goals in all competitions during his final season with the Sky Blues to attract the interest of the Reds
As a result, Strachan admits that he did not believe that his compatriot stood a chance of joining Liverpool when McAllister asked him about the possibility of a new contract at the club
Strachan
“I remember him coming in, about April, he says: ‘What about a new contract?’" Strachan recalled on Football’s Greatest podcast With Jeff Stelling
“I said: ‘Oh right, okay’, because he was getting looked after.
“And he said to me: ‘Because I’ve got a chance here’, he was about 35 at the time, he says: ‘I’ve got a chance of going to Liverpool’.
“And I kind of went: ‘Aye, alright then!’ I think: ‘Lunatic - he’s never going to Liverpool!’
“I said to the chairman: ‘He thinks he’s going to Liverpool! Forget it, he’s not going Liverpool!’ And he did!”
Strachan also offered insight into the hard work McAllister put in throughout his career to make a transfer to Liverpool possible in the first place.
Strachan Added
“He’s been a mate of mine for a long time,” he said. “We’re best of mates now. I love him, absolutely love him.
“I have had arguments with him. Howard (Wilkinson), if he was picking two teams (in training) used to put me and him against each other, my team against his team, because he knew the intensity of this, because we didn’t want to get beat by each other. And it worked in training, and even running.
“He’s a wonderful, wonderful man. He’s had blows that have formed his character over the years. He’s clever. Going to Leeds, he realised that he had to be fitter. He had to be stronger.
“If you ask him now, he’ll say that if he didn’t go to Leeds he would probably have finished at 31.
And he played at 37 with Liverpool, and been the man of the match (in the UEFA Cup final).
“Only because he was clever enough to understand, ‘I need to get fitter, I need to be stronger’. And because he got fitter and stronger, his ability, which was phenomenal, and his concentration stayed longer…
“Gary McAllister was a far better player physically and intelligence-wise at 35 than he was at 21, because he could take information in and make himself better…
“We were part of that by keeping him fit and making him stronger (at Coventry) and all of the rest of it, but I think he scored a ridiculous amount of goals, him and Robbie Keane, that year.
“And he went there (Liverpool) and he was a success again. Wonderful.
“And it just shows, if you really want to work at your fitness and work at your professionalism, you get it at the end of your career. At 36, being man of the match in a European final is wonderful.”
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