Adam Virgo: Gordon Strachan let me down with Celtic move

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The Celtic Star

·17 aprile 2025

Adam Virgo: Gordon Strachan let me down with Celtic move

Adam Virgo has claimed that Gordon Strachan let him down following his move to Celtic back in 2005 and reckons the Scotland legend mis-sold him a dream in this respect…

08.07.2007. Photo imago/GeisserAdam Virgo (Celtic Glasgow)

Virgo joined the Hoops for £1.5 million and was one of the Celtic managers first signings when he stepped into the Parkhead hot seat, following the departure of Martin O’Neill just a few months prior.

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The man who previously managed Coventry City and Southampton was setting about a major rebuild and the time had come for freshness in the squad that the Irishman had built and garnered so much success with. Virgo recalls the moment when Strahcan pitched the Celtic dream to him, in the aftermath of a very tough and testing period in his life, with the murder of his father prevalent at that point.

Bobby Zamora (R) of West Ham evades the challenge from Adam Virgo during the Coca Cola Championship match between Brighton and Hove Albion and West Ham United at The Withdean Sports Complex Stadium on April 23, 2005 in Brighton. (Photo: Scott Heavey/Getty Images)

“I remember meeting Gordon in Brighton and I always remember this, he said to me, ‘What’s your main worry?’. I said, ‘I’m not going to play, that’s my main worry. My dad’s only just died and I don’t think I’m quite ready for it at the moment.’ He went, ‘I promise you this, you’re going to go up as my number one right back. And then when you go from there, you’re going to go into centre half.’ I remember looking him in the eye and I said, ‘You promise me that?’ and he went, ‘Yeah’,” Virgo revealed on the Under The Cosh podcast.

Leon Clarke of Wolves holds off Adam Virgo of Brifgton during the Coca Cola Championship match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brighton and Hove Albion at Molineux on December 28, 2004. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

“So I said, ‘Well, I’d be stupid to turn down the move.’ That was then the start of me going up there and it not really materialising as what he promised. And then the way that it ended… I just thought it was pretty wrong, to be honest. Considering what I had just been through and he said the club would look after me. Celtic’s an amazing club, and there are some really, really good people there.

“Maybe today you might be looked after more. But at that stage, when I went from Brighton to Celtic, you go from 6,000 to 60,000 [fans]. You go from not being recognised to being recognised everywhere that you go.

Jermain Defoe of Tottenham and Adam Virgo of Brighton battle for the ball during the FA Cup round match between Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton & Hove Albion at White Hart Lane on January 8, 2005. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

“You go from jumping into a cab with a driver that’s a Rangers fan and being told to get out, to then getting into a cab that is driven by a Celtic fan and they don’t charge you. But no one ever sits you down and goes, ‘This is what it’s like, this is what you need to be prepared for.’ Just the way that it ended… I felt really let down, not by the club, but by Gordon because I really felt that I just wasn’t given the opportunity there. It was just a really, really difficult time.

“Then you go on loan to Coventry and you’re a nomad again. From that security of Brighton to being promised this and then going everywhere. From there, I lost a lot of confidence, and I just think my career went the other way after that because of those incidents.”

Bobby Zamora (R) of West Ham holds off the challenge from Adam Virgo during the Coca Cola Championship match between Brighton and Hove Albion and West Ham United at The Withdean Sports Complex Stadium on April 23, 2005 in Brighton, England (Photo: Scott Heavey/Getty Images)

The defender never really managed to assert himself at Paradise and was seen sporadically, however, Virgo claims that he was never given the proper opportunities, despite Strachan promising him the earth so that he would up sticks from Brighton and head to Glasgow. Moreover, he feels he was singled out by the Scot one time for no reason in front of his teammates during pre-season, which pretty much sealed the deal.

“There was an incident in America at the end where we went pre-season training and we had a game against DC United. Freddy Adu scored a hat trick against us that night. I didn’t play that night and we lost 4-1,” he added.

“We were training at Harvard University the next morning and we like properly ran. He killed us that day and he called us in at the end. I always remember this, he went, ‘When Celtic lose, it goes around the world. It’s not like a team like Brighton when they lose and no one cares.’ I didn’t even play, I’m just stood there and Stilian Petrov is looking at me thinking ‘What’s he said that for?’. I went up to Gordon afterwards and I said, ‘You’re bang out of order for saying that. Funny enough, when Brighton do lose, it makes a massive difference because a win bonus [back in those days]could contribute towards your mortgage’.

“Then I train with the reserves and come in on my own. I just thought from that meeting and what you promised me to where it ended up, I felt massively shafted. I would rather at the end of the first season for him to say, ‘Listen, it’s not worked out. We’ll pay up your contract and then you can go.’ But that last season, I’m with the reserves.”

Adam insisted that from there on in, he was pretty much a lost character in the haze, with his manager not really protecting him at times. “I only played 12 games,” he bemoaned. “I started right back, then I went to centre half, then I went centre-midfield, then I played up front. I played in every position. And then I got man of the match at Motherwell.

“This is where I knew my time was up. Back then, January was the African Cup of Nations. I’d been speaking to Gordon and a guy called Stephen McManus came into the team from nowhere, and I wasn’t really getting much of a chance.

03.08.2006 Photo imago/UPI – Mannschaftsfoto

“I thought in that January period with Bobo being away, that would be the time that I’d get my run of games. I played against Motherwell, I get man of the match, play the next game and then just get bombed. I just didn’t really get a run of games. But when you’re playing for different positions, it’s hard to get settled in. When I talk about the levels, when you’re a utility player… I am for a game.

“But when you go to Celtic, when you go to that level… we played Manchester United pre-season and I played the second-half up front and you’re playing against Vidic and Ferdinand… I’m not a centre forward, you know what I mean? He called me out after that game and I said, ‘I’m not a centre forward.’ It was just a bit of a mess really from start to finish.”

The newly appointed manager of Celtic, Gordon Strachan, attends a press conference announcing his new position, May 31, 2005 (Photo by Getty Images/Getty Images)

All in all, the former utility player admits that despite Gordon’s brilliance as a manager, his man-management skills left a lot to be desired, as it was more than just Adam he clashed with regularly. He continued: “I think the one thing that Gordon didn’t like was confrontation and intelligent confrontation. And that’s what he didn’t like. I could argue with him and that’s why he fell out with Aiden McGeady, because Aiden was quite switched on upstairs.

“When he had a conversation with Aiden, Aiden could come back with something quite quickly and he’d have to think about it. He would rather you call him X, Y and Z and get really angry rather than be calm and and say, ‘Okay, fine. But you said this, you’ve done that, and he didn’t like that. Manager-wise, in terms of tactics and coaching, different class. But man-management skills, very, very difficult.”

Paul Gillespie

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