THE truly successful football managers are like old suits that have been lying in a wardrobe, unused for 10 years.

They might still be in the best of nick and conjure up fond memories of nights out, but the sense of style, the embrace of immediacy, has departed.

This Gordon Strachan might dwell on as he considers his future. It was interesting to note in yesterday's Evening Times that the Celtic captain, Neil Lennon, reckoned his current gaffer's talents would be fully recognised only when he had gone.

Such thoughts will be distant from his mind as he plots a double of the SPL title and Scottish Cup and are highly unlikely to surface during the summer months as he reshapes his squad for next season.

And yet there remains an inherent distaste among a section of the support for the talents, or perhaps the demeanour, of the manager. No-one has discovered the roots - perhaps because he had no Celtic background. Maybe because he was a Hibs supporter as a boy.

Possibly there remain those who continue to regard his predecessor Martin O'Neill to be irreplaceable. And undoubtedly he irked the Celtic-minded, courtesy of aggressive performances for Aberdeen at Parkhead and Pittodrie in the early '80s when he and team-mates were driven by the passion of Alex Ferguson.

Combined somewhere within the subconscious, it's a package of negatives not easily buried.

Sure, the pragmatic view would be to the effect why should he complain? After all, he is handsomely rewarded, is collecting the major domestic prizes regularly and has guaranteed a huge return on the club's investment in him by guiding Celtic to the last 16 of this season's Champions League.

However - to endorse the point Lennon made - a sense of appreciation cannot be bought, not even by a company platinum MasterCard. With the exception of the extraordinary Ferguson, still planning and plotting and wheeling and dealing after more than 20 years at Old Trafford, most of the genuinely outstanding managers in the British game reckoned they hung about the premises too long - and this in an era in which daily pressures were minuscule compared to present workloads and media scrutiny.

When the wonderful Bill Shankly was replaced by Bob Paisley he was left bewildered, continuing to turn up for the ritual of five-a-side games until it was suggested from on high that his continued presence might be regarded as an interference.

Almost single-handedly, Shanks had laid the groundwork for Liverpool to emerge as Europe's top club of the '80s but found himself surplus to requirements.

The shameful treatment of Jock Stein by the then Celtic board outdistanced Liverpool's humbling of his great mate. Effectively sacked, to be replaced by Billy McNeill, he was offered a job running the club's pools.

Sir Matt Busby, at Manchester United, and Willie Waddell, at Rangers, were never treated with such disdain, yet for many years their familiarity with the grounds and the staff which had permeated their working lives suggested a touch of the comfort zone inhabited by the Chelsea Pensioner.

As yet, there are no indications whatsoever Strachan sees his future anywhere other than within the east end of Glasgow, but you do sense he would like to be enjoyed and appreciated more than is presently the case.

Otherwise, as Lennon has indicated, he might only be celebrated when he has left - and be certain be will already have drawn interest from England.