GORDON STRACHAN has admitted he made mistakes during his 12 months in charge of Middlesbrough and he does not blame anyone else but himself for the way he lost his job.

Strachan has kept a low profile since he was sacked by chairman Steve Gibson in October, but he felt the time was right yesterday to put on record his reasons why his reign ended prematurely at the Riverside Stadium.

The former Celtic manager won just 13 of his 46 matches in charge on Teesside, losing 20, and he paid the price for failing to fulfil promotion expectations this season.

Strachan spent around £6m last summer in the hope that it would lead to promotion back to the Premier League, while he lured Kris Boyd from Rangers on a free by offering Premier League wages.

Instead, his spending spree has left his successor, Tony Mowbray, facing up to the reality of a third year in the Championship with a wage bill needing to be trimmed from £20m to under £10m.

Strachan made no excuses for Middlesbrough’s failings during his time in charge, admitting the club’s alarming slip towards League One was only down to one man – himself.

“Everywhere I went I always felt I’ve given value for money,” said Strachan. “Whether I got £15 at Dundee or more than £15 at Celtic, I always felt I’ve given value for money.

“I didn’t feel I gave value for money at Middlesbrough. It’s not that I didn’t try, I just didn’t give them what they wanted.

There were a couple of reasons.

We got some horrendous injuries and I’d never bring them up when I was a manager.

“But the second and most important one is that I made mistakes. It’s as simple as that.

I wouldn’t like to go into them, but I made mistakes.

“I put in the hours and put in the hard work, but I made mistakes.

You can deal with that.

If you know that it’s your fault, you can walk away. The biggest mistakes were made by me.”

Strachan did not want to go into finer detail, although he did admit such errors were behind his decision not to ask for any pay-off when he lost his job.

Having said that, however, the former Scotland and Manchester United midfielder did go on to reveal on Sky Sports’ Goals on Sunday programme that he thinks he has left behind a healthy squad – but fears another period of transition.

“If everybody’s fit, they have some good players there,” he said.

“But it’s keeping them now because they have a wage bill that needs to be looked at. Part of the deal when I was there was I had to cut a lot of the big earners, who’d been there for a while. It’s not easy.

“They need to restructure themselves at Middlesbrough to learn to live on their means and not always rely on Steve (Gibson) and say ‘give me some more millions’.

“A man can only do that for so long. I think they have to realise that and run it in a different structure.

“It’s funny. At other clubs I’ve played and managed, I kind of glimpse at their results, but I actually look at Middlesbrough’s results and hope they win. They’re a good club, a right good club with good people.”