WHEN Colin Cooper was asked to sum up Gareth Southgate’s personality last week, the first word he used was “gentleman”.

It is safe to say that, when it comes to his successor, “gentle” is not the first word that comes to mind.

Strachan is the complete antithesis of the man he replaces at the Riverside.

His razor-sharp wit and refusal to deal in platitudes has earned him cult status amongst football fans, but behind the caricature-like facade lies a steely and determined Scotsman who has won 17 major honours as both a player and manager.

You don’t win that many titles simply by trotting out a raft of witty jokes.

As a player, Strachan was one of the best around, and while his managerial career is yet to hit quite the same heights, he arrives at Middlesbrough as a proven winner north of the border who is desperate to prove himself in England.

He was in exactly the same position when he left Aberdeen in 1984, and he ended up winning the FA Cup and First Division title.

What Boro supporters wouldn’t give for anything approaching a repeat.

BORN in Edinburgh in 1957, Strachan started his professional career with Dundee, where his already well-honed leadership qualities led to his appointment as the club’s youngest-ever captain.

He moved to Aberdeen in 1977, and was quickly united with an emerging young manager who went by the name of Alex Ferguson. For more than a decade, their careers would be intertwined.

Strachan won five domestic trophies and the European Cup Winners’ Cup as Aberdeen demolished Scotland’s Old Firm duopoly and embarked on a winning streak every bit as remarkable as the ones Brian Clough and Sir Bobby Robson inspired at Derby, Nottingham Forest and Ipswich south of the border.

Strachan’s role at the heart of midfield was pivotal, and in August 1984, Ron Atkinson paid £500,000 to take him to Old Trafford.

Atkinson’s departure two years later paved the way for Ferguson to join the Red Devils, and over the next three seasons, Strachan would help lay the foundations that would eventually transform Manchester United into the serial winners they are today.

The Scotsman was the perfect partner for Bryan Robson and a forerunner to Roy Keane, a snarling midfield terrier who also boasted sublime passing skills and an eye for a goal.

For a while, he was also the apple of Ferguson’s eye, but in the end, the pair were simply too combustible for a functioning working relationship to survive.

“I needed him to treat me as an adult, not a kid,” said Strachan. “To have some respect for the fact that I was an experienced professional to whom abuse from the manager had become more of a motivational turn-off than a stimulus.

“Not long after he joined me at Manchester United, I remember telling him.

‘Listen, you spoke to me like that nine years ago. It might have worked then, but it is not going to work now’. But the screaming and shouting did not cease – it just got worse and more personal.”

As a result, Strachan left Old Trafford and joined Leeds in March 1989. He helped the Yorkshire club win the Second Division in 1990 and, two seasons later, was celebrating his greatest achievement as a player as Leeds overtook Manchester United to win the First Division title in the final season before the advent of the Premier League.

He was 35 when he lifted English football’s biggest prize, and reporters seeking to explain his durability concentrated on his breakfast regime – porridge, bananas and seaweed pills.

Today, nutrition is a key part of the game. Back then, team-mate David Batty described it as “wacky”.

Either way, it helped Strachan extend his playing career beyond his 40th birthday, but by 1996 his title at his latest club, Coventry, had changed. When Atkinson was appointed Director of Football at Highfield Road, Strachan was named as playermanager.

HIS five-year spell at Coventry (one as player-manager and four as manager) was primarily a battle against the drop, and it included one of the Premier League’s greatest-ever escapes, a Houdini act that ironically cost Middlesbrough their top-flight status.

When Coventry lost their penultimate game of the 1996-97 season, it looked as though their 30-year spell in the top-flight was at an end.

But as Strachan inspired his players to a 2-1 win at Tottenham, a Middlesbrough side who had been docked three points earlier in the season could only draw 1-1 at Leeds. Sunderland lost 1-0 at Wimbledon, and while the two North-East sides were down, Coventry were safe.

They weren’t so lucky at the end of the 2000-01 season however, and with relegation finally on his CV, Strachan was sacked in the summer.

He returned to management within months, taking over at Southampton, and his early days at the new St Mary’s Stadium were a roaring success.

He guided the Saints out of the relegation zone in his first season, and led the club out at the 2003 FA Cup final, where they lost 1-0 to Arsenal.

He managed Southampton in Europe, but with fans calling for his head after a poor run of results, resigned citing a desire to spend more time with his family in February 2004.

That led to a 15-month break from the game, but he returned to his native Scotland to lead Celtic in June 2005.

His spell at Parkhead started dreadfully – a 5-0 defeat to Artmedia Bratislava in the qualifying round of the Champions League – but he went on to win three Premier League titles, two Scottish League Cups and a Scottish Cup.

He guided Celtic to memorable Champions League victories over Benfica, Manchester United and AC Milan, but a playing style that prioritised resilience and defence over expansive attacking play meant he struggled to endear himself to the Parkhead faithful.

He eventually stepped down at the end of last season, and had been linked with a possible move to Sunderland before being unveiled at Middlesbrough yesterday afternoon.

Under Southgate, the Riverside was an oasis of relative calm. Under Strachan, things are about to become much more unpredictable.