THE LAST time I spent some proper time with Tommy Burns was over a meal we had last Christmas. In hindsight I'm so glad we did that because we had been talking about getting together but it took a while to happen because either he was busy or I was busy.

I have an old photograph of myself, Tommy and Gordon dressed up in fancy dress as cowboys, which was taken on a Scotland tour of Canada in the summer of 1983. It's a great picture that I cherish.

When I was at Celtic in the second half of the 1980s I became close to Tommy. We were very friendly, we went out together, we partied together, we were part of the same set. Our children went to the same school in Newton Mearns. Later our paths crossed when we were both managing in England.

Management once brought us together in bizarre, amusing circumstances. I was invited for an interview for the Aberdeen job. Stewart Milne and Keith Burkinshaw were the two people who interviewed me.

As you do when you have an interview for an important job, I made sure I got up there in plenty of time and I actually ended up getting there an hour early. So I thought I'd pass some time having a coffee.

I walked around and saw a lane with a coffee shop and thought that would do me, so in I went. At the counter I had a look around the place and there was a guy reading a newspaper although his face was obscured. As I bought the coffee he turned over the page, and of course it was Tommy.

Right away I made the connection that he was there for the Aberdeen job as well. The pair of us burst out laughing and asked each other "well, what are you doing here" as if neither of us had worked it out.

It was hilarious because we had bumped into each other in this tiny little place up an alleyway. He had an interview at 2.30 and I had one at 3.30 or something like that. The punchline was that neither of us got the job. We had another laugh about it last Christmas.

Tommy was a bit of a contradiction in some ways in terms of his private life and character off the field, compared to the way he was as a player.

He was such a mild-mannered kind of individual off the field but when it came to games and training he could be quite an angry man. He got himself sent off a few times. You could almost say he bordered on being indisciplined at times on the field. He was capable of that, he could get frustrated and lash out.

He was never a tackler but he would clip your heels and want to chase you. Would he have a run-in with me? Never. He would have been scared of me. He'd have picked on someone his own size, someone like wee Gordon. I'd tell him that would be typical of him.

Everyone knows Tommy was a very religious man but he was also very funny and very streetwise. You have to remember where he came from. I remember him telling me about the drugs problems up in Glasgow's Calton and his desire to do something to help that.

He remained connected to that and he involved himself in that world and tried to help people. He always kept his feet on the ground. You could say he was always close to reality in that way and never let himself get carried away.

I knew Tommy was gravely ill in recent weeks. I was being kept up to speed by Gordon, who I knew was very distracted by the whole affair. I know he was very, very affected by what Tommy was going through. The training and the games were able to take him out of it a bit but otherwise I know he was consumed by Tommy's illness.

Tommy really did transcend the Old Firm divide. He was never afraid to show his hand. He was totally up front, Celtic through-and-through.

He was a devout Catholic and a fanatical Celtic supporter but he was never a bigot. He had total respect for everyone else's religion or beliefs. I think people knew that and that's why he had so much respect from other people.

Ally McCoist and him had complementary senses of humour. In some ways Ally does for Rangers what Tommy did for Celtic.

There is affection for Ally among many Celtic supporters just as there was for Tommy among many Rangers fans.

One of the things I thought was great about Tommy was that he was at Celtic all through the various changes which happened at the club. Changes to Parkhead itself, changes to the managerial regimes, changes to the ownership. He saw it and did it all and what Tommy brought was consistency and stability to Celtic.

The story I've told since Tommy's death was of how Alex Ferguson recommended him for the Celtic job ahead of me - and Fergie told me that. And he was right to do so because appointing Tommy meant the owner, Fergus McCann, got instant acceptance from the fans.

That decision gave Fergus the breathing space to get established, while Tommy earned even more admiration for his style of football.

Tommy's funeral is on Tuesday, which is my birthday. I'll be 51, the same age he was when he passed away on Thursday. However long I live myself I'll never have another birthday without spending a part of it thinking of him.