Darren Fletcher, asked to reflect yesterday on his development as a footballer, paid the following moving and unrehearsed tribute to Tommy Burns, the former Celtic and Scotland coach who died in May.

“I've always been one of those players who, if I give the ball away, I'll never hide, and the one person who always remarked on that to me was - God rest his soul - Tommy Burns,” Fletcher said.

“Tommy had the same attitude. He used to pull me aside with Scotland and say, ‘If you give the ball away, never hide, go and get it back, show courage and bravery.' It is one thing I've always remembered about him.

“Tommy was a massive influence because he was a great man and a great coach. I learnt a lot from him. Off the pitch he was so funny and had all the lads laughing, but he could be serious, too.

“He once nutmegged me in Wales when we had a game between the starting line-up and the rest of the subs and the staff.

I was trying to press him, and he nutmegged me, and he must have shown a repeat of it on the video about 20 times on every trip we went on after that.

“I think that's why we suffered such a big defeat that night in Wales [4-0 in February 2004]. I think my confidence was shot because Tommy had nutmegged me. But he was a great man and a great coach.

“I've never hidden when I give the ball away, and Tommy used to emphasise that point a lot. He used to make the point to all the lads, and I'm sure that everyone else has taken something and learnt from him as well.

“He also once spoke about how he hadn't got too many caps for Scotland because of the quality of player he was up against in his day. But I know that Tommy was a great footballer. You get pennants rather than caps for being in the squad, and Tommy had more pennants than caps.

“I'm sitting here with 40 caps and a great player like Tommy Burns only got eight. It is quite humbling.”