"I had to phone him and say it was nothing to do with his club," the Celtic manager joked the other day, "it was just money". Rioch wouldn't take the snub personally. The 61-year-old, who will bring his Aalborg side to Celtic Park on Wednesday for the two clubs' Champions League opener, appears never to have taken anything that way in 26 years of management.

Not the fact that four years is the longest posting he has enjoyed at any one club... that he seems to have come off second best in disputes on matters of principle with a number of players and directors... or even, inexplicably, that he lost out to Berti Vogts for the Scotland job in 2002. The son of an army officer, Rioch has a reputation for demanding discipline and physical exertion from his charges. But he doesn't adopt a stiff upper lip when reflecting on the difficult times in his career. Instead, he allows his lips to curl upwards into a smile.

"I feel privileged to still be doing this all the years on from my first coaching post," he says. "I'd rather be doing this than the hellish tough job that the soldiers out in Afghanistan and Iraq have to do. You have to embrace the challenges, retain the motivation, accept that you will lose football matches along the way and understand there are worse things.

"You can't allow yourself to be bitter over anything that happens in this profession. Bitterness eats into your head and your heart and that can cause you no end of damage. I'm told by the League Managers' Association that the average tenure for a manager in England is now 13 months. For many of the younger ones, that period will cover their only post before they are lost to the game. I'm still doing this nearly three decades on from my first managerial job at Torquay, so that's not too bad."

This week he will feasting on gourmet football fare with his first taste of the Champions League. Aalborg have been there previously, in 1995-96, making them the first Danish club to twice contest this stage. It is the first time at this level for Rioch, who in the summer was asked to take over the recently crowned Superliga winners after coach Erik Hamren decamped to Rosenborg. Sports director Lynge Jakobsen, who Rioch knew from his 20-month stint with Odense that ended in March 2007, made the call. He offered Rioch a contract only till the country's winter shut-down in December, and set him a task.

"It was in the job description that I get the club into the Champions League. That was all," he says with a chuckle. "It might not seem much that we beat Modrica home and away and then Kaunas home and away, but these games have to be won, as Rangers will testify."

Winning games in the league is proving problematic. Ahead of this weekend Aalborg had claimed only seven points from six games to lie eighth in a 12-team league. The form of his young team – in which Australian internationalist defender Michael Beachamp, former Swedish cap Andreas Johansson and Polish forward Marek Saganowski, on loan from Southampton, are among the more seasoned campaigners – is not causing the manager undue worry. And after years of wandering he says he wants to enjoy more than a six-month stay with the club.

Rioch's itinerant career has been the product of circumstance rather than restlessness. Maybe, though, it was his destiny. He became used to moving around because of his father's military career, living in Germany for periods in his younger years. But he has never become accustomed to having his nationality questioned. Rioch, famously, was the first English-born captain of Scotland.

"I have lived in England all my life," he says, "but I tire of telling that only events dictated this. With a father from Aberdeen, a mother from the Isle of Skye and brothers born in Torness, I just happened to be born in the two middle barracks in Aldershot."

As a player at first Aston Villa, then Derby County, where he won the title in 1975 and returned after a spell with Everton, Rioch based himself in the Midlands for 18 years. On the international stage, he enjoyed victories over England in 1976 and, famously, in 1977 when he captained Scotland to a memorable triumph at Wembley. He skippered the national side during the ill-fated 1978 World Cup campaign and won his 24th and final cap in the 3-2 win over Holland in Argentina.

His managerial career flourished at Middlesbrough. Between 1986 and 1988, he earned the club successive promotions to haul them up to the top flight, and is credited as the man who kept the club functioning as it flirted with bankruptcy in his early days. "A marriage that ended in divorce", is how he describes his dismissal in March 1989, following the club's relegation to the old Second Division the previous year. Bolton was another love affair. That club's supporters regard him as one of their best ever managers. Rioch maintains he could have "happily stayed there for a long, long time" if Arsenal hadn't come calling in 1995. "You can't turn down a job like that," he says. He lasted only 13 months at the London club, during which time he recruited Dennis Bergkamp.

He made way for Arsene Wenger at Highbury but Rioch wishes his stay had been longer at Arsenal. He could say the same of brief spells as Queens Park Rangers assistant, and periods managing Norwich City and Wigan. He was between jobs when the Scotland post became vacant, but he doesn't harbour regrets over being overlooked in favour of Vogts. "The (SFA] chief executive and his board had a decision to make and I must accept that," he says. "There is no point in 'what ifs' or looking back. You must always look forward."

He does so with relish, gleefully relating how there is feverish excitement in Aalborg over the fact their city's team, whose ground has a capacity of 10,200, will be playing in front of 67,000 at Old Trafford, and 60,000 at Celtic Park. Rioch seems invigorated by the prospect of locking horns with two Scottish managers in Alex Ferguson and Strachan. "I admire their zest, their thirst for hard work and tactical diligence," he says. "These are great traits, qualities that allow them constantly to renew themselves. I know Alex well. Gordon, I think I know well from watching him on television. He was a super player. High energy and knew the game."

Rioch's renewal in Denmark has come among cultural cousins, he feels. "They have good humour, honesty and graft," he says. "They are like Scots and that isn't a surprise when you think about the history. I have been reading this book on the Vikings' invasion of the British Isles in 800AD and it's fascinating."

Rioch the army man would surely settle for honours even when he leads his Danes onto a northern battleground that has claimed several more illustrious foreign foes in recent times.


AALBORG AT A GLANCE

AALBORG Boldspilklub is a sporting club which has ice hockey and handball sides. The club established a football team in 1902 but has only been a part of the Danish Superliga championship since 1987, winning three championships in 1995, 1999 and 2008. Aalborg's Energi Nord Arena has a capacity of just 13,800.

KEY PLAYERS
Siyabonga Nomvethe An attacking midfielder or winger who has been capped 75 times for South Africa, scoring 15 goals.

Marek Saganowski The Polish striker who featured for his country at Euro 2008 is currently on loan from Southampton. Saganowski is renowned for his work rate as well as finishing.

Caca The 25-year-old Brazilian attacking midfielder scored six goals last season. He was part of the Brazilian side which won the Under-17s World Championships in 1999.

FORM GUIDE
Aalborg won the league by nine points last season, losing just one game at home. This season has been less than impressive. After six games before this weekend, Aalborg were eighth with just seven points from two wins, a draw and three defeats.