No champagne for this Charlie

Charlie Christie would not be the first person to be left in Frank McAvennie's wake. Former managers and girlfriends would testify to the fact that the champagne-loving Macca often gave them sleepless nights.

McAvennie loved the spotlight so much that even when he had left West Ham United for Celtic, he was on a plane to London every Saturday evening to hook up with his drinking buddies and his page three girlfriend. Christie gave up trying to fill McAvennie's boots at Parkhead and opted for a quiet life in the Highlands.

Yet it is Christie who still has a role to play 17 years after they shared a dressing room at Celtic. When his old club come calling today in the Scottish Premier League, the Inverness Caledonian Thistle manager will remind himself of what might have been.

"I was part of the squad when Celtic won the Double in 1988," he says. "I banged in 25 goals for the reserves but McAvennie and Andy Walker hit 30 each so they were never out of the first team. There is a tinge of regret that I never got my chance but in football, timing is everything - I was at Celtic at the wrong time. Two years later, everyone was getting a chance at striker."

Christie never regretted his decision to go back to Inverness. Due to his clean living, he hung up his boots aged 38 in 2004 after 314 games for the Highland club, including the cup shocks against Celtic in 2000 and 2003.

Yet perhaps timing has worked in Christie's favour now. The sudden departure of Craig Brewster to Dundee United last January saw him promoted almost against his will. "I was a coach and just enjoying a quiet life," he says. "It was a huge step and I was uncertain about disrupting my whole life but I felt that if I did not give it a go, the opportunity might never come again. You cannot play safe all your life."

He steered Inverness to seventh place last season and despite only joining the League in 1994, they have ambitions of reaching Europe next season in the Intertoto Cup. "I think my own experience at Celtic teaches me that there is a thin line between success and failure," said Christie. "There are some players who get overlooked who thrive later on in their career. I have a lot of players like that. A lot of them were in the lower divisions but have improved since we got promoted to the SPL two years ago."

Christie, like his adversary today, Gordon Strachan, believes in flowing football. "We have changed our style since I took over," he says. "We like to get the ball down and pass it. That's the way I was taught at Celtic. I know ideology doesn't keep managers in their jobs, but I like to think my Inverness side will entertain the people who watch us."