GORDON Strachan may have left the dubious delights of club management behind him when he took over at Scotland just over four years ago now.

Yet, the final hours of the January transfer window on Tuesday were still, with Chelsea attempting to sign Craig Gordon from Celtic, decidedly uncomfortable for him.

Had Gordon, who was the subject of two failed bids from the Barclays Premier League leaders, moved to Stamford Bridge then he would have become understudy to Thibaut Courtois there.

Having his first choice keeper, who reclaimed his place in the national team from David Marshall in the Russia 2018 qualifier against England at Wembley back in November, sitting on the bench would have been far from ideal for Strachan.

Scotland have an important Group F match against Slovenia coming up at Hampden next month and the man in charge would dearly like his goalie, along with all of his key players, to be featuring regularly at club level going into it.

“That would have been a worry,” the 59-year-old said. “Craig is the in-form goalie at the moment.”

Strachan is a huge admirer of how Gordon conducts himself both on and off the park and admitted he had been impressed with how the player, who kept clean sheets in the games against Hearts on Sunday and Aberdeen on Wednesday night, had handled the fevered speculation about his future.

“It was ‘a case of is Craig staying or is he going’,” he said. But I think everyone’s dealt with it really well. From Celtic’s point of view, they didn’t make a big song and dance about it and the player himself was fantastic.

“He’s not done the ‘I’m not playing for you any more’ sort of thing. He dealt with it right. The reason he dealt with it right because he’s had a few knockbacks in his career and he knows that people have helped him to get back to where he is. But he was the main protagonist in getting back to where he is now. He’s a strong-minded character.

“You never hear from him. He just plays his game, gets on with it. He got left out of the Celtic team earlier in the season and he dealt with it magnificently.”

Strachan, the former Manchester United and Leeds United midfielder, admitted he would have understood if Gordon had been tempted to move to Chelsea even if he would only have been second choice.

“We have to remember that when you get to a certain age in football, when you get to 33 or 34, you have to go ‘what’s best for my family’,” he said. “By then there’s kids involved. So I can understand why his head might have been turned – or anybody’s head might have been turned – at 34. “ Strachan was pleased that Robert Snodgrass, the Scotland midfielder who was transferred from Hull City to their Barclays Premier League rivals West Ham this week in a £10.2 million deal, managed to move up a level in the transfer window.

“We’re delighted with that,” he said. “He just texted me just now. So that was good. But there wasn’t much going on in the transfer market really. Just poor Jim White leaping around in his yellow gear again. It wasn’t exciting at all.”

Meanwhile, Strachan admitted he had been delighted to see Kieran Tierney, the Celtic left back who spent three months out after undergoing ankle and shoulder operations, display such fine form since returning to action last month. “He’s a guy who doesn’t give much away,” he said. “He’s steady and a wonderful player.

“A top player and I like him as a bloke.”