Strachan looks at bigger picture March 22 2008
Celtic manager Gordon Strachan insists the club's problems pale into insignificance compared to Sunday's SPL opponents Gretna, who went in to administration last week.
A hand-out from the Scottish Premier League should ensure that the players receive the reported £70,000 in wages and bonuses owed to them with money left over to allow the Highlanders to complete this season's fixtures in the hope of a new investor coming in.
To compound their troubles, Gretna have been forced to play the champions at Almondvale after Motherwell's Fir Park, where they have lodged this season, was closed to sort the pitch.
The Hoops' woes are of a different type. The Scottish Cup quarter-final replay defeat by Aberdeen at Celtic Park in midweek was the fourth game without a win for the stuttering champions.
They could go into the Gretna game six points behind leaders Rangers, who play Hibernian on Saturday. But Strachan was in no doubt as to what constitutes a proper crisis.
"What Gretna are going through would be a crisis," he said. "If you are a family man and not being paid, that is a bit of a crisis.
"It's no fun when you have to go home and say 'I've not been paid.' That is a bit of a crisis and the lads there have handled themselves well. I've seen interviews on the telly when they have done very well.
"I've been in a lot worse positions than this. I think I might have used the word crisis when I was at Coventry and we had to beat Tottenham away, and hope that Middlesbrough and Sunderland got beat (for Coventry to avoid relegation).
"I think that was a bit of crisis then. Since then I haven't really been in a crisis."