Gordon Strachan knows what expectations will be like in Scotland ahead of the European Championship. He knows what it is like to carry the load.

As a player, the former Manchester United and Leeds midfielder went to two World Cups, in 1982 and 1986. As Scotland manager, he tried and failed to lead his country to two summer tournaments during his four and half years in charge.

‘The absolute beauty of it is that if you do well then you know every single person in Scotland is happy because of you,’ Strachan tells Sportsmail. ‘That is 4.5million people feeling happy and that’s a wonderful feeling.

‘The downside is that you know you have the capacity to make them all miserable, too… the good news is that everyone is positive right now. It’s fabulous to be back.’

Steve Clarke’s Scotland team are about to contest the country’s first major finals since the 1998 World Cup. They are in England’s group and face Gareth Southgate’s team at Wembley on Friday June 18. Ranked 44 in the world, Scotland will be outsiders in a pool also featuring Croatia and Czech Republic.

‘International players in Scotland are always expected to win and we are back at this level for the first time in 20 years so people will automatically expect the boys to do well,’ says Strachan, 64, who will write columns for Sportsmail during the Euros.

‘But that’s OK. We should be optimistic. If we were playing against a nation with Arsenal players, Liverpool players, Man Utd players and Aston Villa players then we would expect them to be decent, wouldn’t we? So we should expect something from Scotland.

‘Are Croatia at their best any more? No. Is there anybody outstanding in the Czech team? No. They are a bit like us: they have a great group of characters and are powerful. England? Yes, without doubt. They have that quality. They are better. But the other ones won’t have us quaking in our boots.’

Strachan’s attempts to take Scotland to the 2016 European Championship were ended by an injury-time Robert Lewandowski equaliser for Poland at Hampden Park. Two years later his team were set to beat England in a World Cup qualifier in Glasgow until Harry Kane struck at the death.

Strachan recalls: ‘I was standing there in the 94th minute against England at Hampden and we are 2-1 up and I am thinking, “Yeh, this is gonna be good”.

‘But then Harry Kane did what he has been doing to managers for years. So I am just another on his long list of victims. But this is the thing about international football: it can swing on tiny moments.

‘In my day I remember giving the ball away against Northern Ireland in a qualifying game and they broke and Asa Hartford cleared it off the line. That helped to get us there.

‘Then at Anfield against Wales in that famous game in 1977 when Kenny (Dalglish) scored, there was a handball by Joe Jordan that went our way and we got a penalty. Again that got us there.

‘You just have to hope it goes your way when it matters. That didn’t quite happen when I was manager but I loved the job and loved working with the players. Somebody asked me if I would go back into management and I said I would if I could take the players I had just been working with at Scotland for five years.

‘It’s a strange feeling now because I am desperate for Scotland to do so well but I see the guys celebrating and think how much I would love to have done it with them. It’s like watching another man going out with your ex-wife. I hope you’re having fun but not having too much…’

Strachan's own international career as a charismatic, skilful playmaker for Scotland earned him 50 caps in 12 years.

The highlights were two World Cup Finals appearances, in Spain 1982 and then Mexico four years later. Neither campaign was dull.

The first featured a victory over New Zealand and a draw against a good Russian team. In between they were beaten 4-1 in Seville by a Brazilian side largely regarded as the best never to win a World Cup. Scotland’s David Narey scored first that day before the might of Zico, Falcao, Eder and Socrates overwhelmed Jock Stein’s team. Scotland eventually missed out on the next stage by goal difference.

‘It was 100 and something degrees,’ recalls Strachan.

‘During the game I thought I could smell burning and I realised it was me. Beforehand we were standing with these guys and had simply never seen bodies like that before.

‘Big Alex McLeish had his shirt off and had this big, white Scottish body on display. The Brazilian guys were ripped. People don’t realise but the great Brazilians were all so strong. Junior at left back I bumped into a couple of times and it was like a cartoon where Bugs Bunny smashes in to something and just splinters to pieces.

‘Our goal just annoyed them. David Narey must have wondered why none of us wanted to celebrate with him. They were the best team I ever played against, just magnificent.

‘Liverpool had an aura about them back then but technically that Brazilian team was something else. Zico was getting man marked by us but sadly we had four players trying to do it.

‘I was subbed off along with their worst player, the big lad up front Serginho. So we swapped shirts. He is probably sitting in Rio right now thinking: “Jeez, I got that wee ginger guy’s shirt. He was rotten…”.’

The World Cup in Mexico is less fondly remembered. Narrow defeats to Denmark and West Germany — with Strachan scoring — left the Scots needing to beat Uruguay to progress. Despite losing a man for a shocking lunge at Strachan in the first minute, the South Americans somehow scrapped their way to a 0-0 draw.

‘I sensed that challenge was coming so I could ride it,’ Strachan says. ‘If I hadn’t I could have got seriously hurt. It produced probably the worst behaved 90 minutes of football I have ever experienced. It was horrendous. But I started to understand a little about life after that. I was driving back through Mexico City after that game and seeing dead horses in the street, people living on top of garages and under tarpaulins. Horrendous poverty.

‘You can then understand why people from central and south America would go to such lengths to try and win a match. For these people, it was about survival.

‘But yeah, it was a dreadful game. They were stamping and spitting and kicking us. When someone got injured, about 10 of their staff would be on there fighting with our players. We could have get involved but we let it go. We thought it was the best way out.’

Scotland had better players in Strachan’s time. Dalglish, Graeme Souness, Alan Hansen, Charlie Nicholas, Willie Miller, John Robertson, Steve Archibald.

‘I have studied it,’ says Strachan. ‘We are producing some good players now but they are all in the same areas, either left backs or midfield players. If you played a World Cup with only left backs then we would probably win it.

‘Back in April 1984 the rankings in Europe had Aberdeen at one, Celtic at 11 and number 14 was Dundee United. And below all them was Real Madrid. That’s how strong it was. Kenny was born in 1951. There were 52,000 male babies born in Scotland that year. In 1993 there were only 27,000. So you are losing half of your pool already. Then throw in 25 per cent obesity and you are left with not many to choose from. So there are reasons. I’ve spoken about genetics and people have laughed but I’m right about it. I know I am.’

Interestingly, Strachan thinks that modern Scotland squads do have one advantage. ‘The group is far more united now,’ he says. ‘In my day the Anglos (England-based players) sat at one table and we sat at the other. But that’s gone now. You watch them come together now at the start of a camp and you’d never know who played where. It’s great to see.

‘And the standard of football in Europe is higher now. There are some players now who could easily get in the teams that I played in.’

International management presents unique challenges. It is not easy. But Strachan envies what Clarke and his players are about to experience.

‘There is criticism and pressure,’ he says. ‘But when you win and you are with the players, that far outweighs the negative stuff.

‘Turning up for training at Mar Hall outside Glasgow and seeing all the players learning, having fun and feeling confident, it’s terrific. You spend time with them and talk football and about their lives. It’s fantastic.’

Scotland’s training base during Strachan’s years was not exclusively theirs during international weeks. ‘Bob Dylan was there once,’ laughs Strachan. ‘He sat by the lift for two hours with his hoodie on. Some of the players asked for his autograph but his bodyguards said he wanted to be left alone. So what was he sitting by the lift for?

‘Mark McGhee was on my staff and Bob’s his idol. But he couldn’t make himself speak to him. We were going to bed one night and Bob was still sitting there.

‘Mark walked by and said “evening” and Bob kind of harrumphed in return. Over time that “harrumph” became exaggerated so much. By the end of the week, Mark was virtually telling people he was sleeping with Bob Dylan.

‘But that’s the kind of fun you have in these camps when the atmosphere is right. I couldn’t wait to meet up with these lads and that’s what hurt me when I lost the job.’

Strachan lost once and drew once against England manager Gareth Southgate during World Cup 2018 qualifying but the two men have a deeper connection. Strachan replaced Southgate as Middlesbrough manager in 2009 and spent a month with him in Poland three years later when both were pundits for ITV during Euro 2012. ‘He is a great lad,’ says Strachan. ‘I took his job and that made it a wee bit difficult when we first met but I got on with him smashing in Poland. I loved his sense of humour.

‘He can put things over very well and in an engaging manner. For international football, you have to be good with people and he is. We had a good group in Poland. Roy (Keane) was there. We’d all go out and eat together and we had the odd game of football on a school pitch behind the hotel.

‘I played, Gareth, Roy, Roberto Martinez. It was great fun. It’s just football, isn’t it? It’s the same wherever you play it.’

The night before we speak, Strachan spent a nervous two hours awaiting news from Scotland. Now technical director at Dundee — for whom he made his playing debut almost 50 years ago — Strachan could not bring himself to watch them win their play-off final against Kilmarnock that took them back into the Premiership.

‘I just got updates and was so pleased when they did it because I know how hard people have worked,’ he says.

‘It’s the same with Scotland. I know so many people in the background at the SFA who have done so much. I am so pleased for them. None of these people have ever been to a World Cup or European Championship.

‘They really deserve it.’