Dick Campbell, the Forfar manager who comes in many guises

This Richard Campbell, a business development manager at Avenue Recruitment in Dunfermline, is smartly dressed in jacket and tie. No sign of the black bunnet which is the trademark of his alter ego, the Forfar Athletic manager Dick Campbell. Oh, and there's more. "Would you believe it," his profile gushes, "I am also one of the country's top after-dinner speakers."

There's only one Dick Campbell, but he comes in many different guises. Today his Forfar side entertain Rangers in the second round of the Scottish Communities League Cup at Station Park, allowing him to renew acquaintance with an old friend of more than 40 years' standing. Whatever did happen to Walter Smith in the intervening period?

Mention of Rangers forces memories of Campbell in yet another guise: as a karaoke singer in a Seville bar surrounded by supporters of the Ibrox club. His attempt to croon his way through the Andy Williams ballad "And I love you so" had gone down like an obese skydiver with a faulty parachute, and he was enticed to sing a crowd favourite instead.

Unfortunately for the performer, his rendition of "Derry's Walls" found its way to the News of the World, which featured the story prominently in the print edition and even more excruciatingly as a video on its website. Campbell, who is married to a Catholic and whose three footballing sons were brought up in the same faith, was mortified and claimed he had been stitched up. Nearly four years later it still rankles. "People describe me as a Rangers guy and I'm not," he says. "I've sung Fields of Athenry with Celtic fans as well. I'm just a jovial person."

He is also an excellent manager if judged by his stints at Brechin City and Forfar. Between 2000 and 2005 he took Brechin from the third division to the first, and he has undertaken similar good work with Forfar since joining them in 2008.

Not so fruitful were spells at Dunfermline Athletic, Partick Thistle and Ross County. At the latter two he wasn't a popular appointment with the fans and his spell at Dingwall ended after just a few months. Did these experiences disillusion him? "That's a really difficult one for me," he says. "I've never really commented on it. I'm not the kind of guy to hold grudges because life is too short. But I was disillusioned, yes."

When Campbell says life is too short he means it literally. In 2011 he was diagnosed with cancer and had to have a kidney removed. "When something life-threatening happens you don't tend to bother about other people's egos," the 59-year-old says.

But for all his talk about not holding grudges he hints he may be might be more forthcoming after he hangs up his bunnet. "My days at Thistle were absolutely fabulous," he says. "I inherited a massive debt and left them in a far better financial position. At Ross County I was top of the league, at Dunfermline I was top of the league. When John Yorkston sacked me they were £1m in debt - 12 years down the road it was £10m."

When he exited Ross County in 2007, Campbell took a six-month sabbatical from football, during which he turned down offers of managerial re-employment. He and his twin brother Ian, who often appear to be joined at the hip, have the luxury of not being dependent on the game for their livelihood.

Ian is Dick's assistant at Forfar, but the roles are reversed in their day jobs at Avenue Recruitment. "We've never been dependent on football," Campbell says. "No chance. My life will never be dictated by a frustrated chairman who can't handle the fans phoning in to say the team are not playing well."

When he wasn't helping other people into jobs during his six months out of football, Campbell got more value from his membership of Gleneagles, where his favourite course is the Queen's. But Saturdays without football were not the same and just as he had at Brechin earlier, he found a perfect fit at Forfar. "When I took the job I said two things to the chairman," he said. "I told him you'll not be as much in debt as you are at the moment - and you won't be in the third division when I leave you. Within three months we got Rangers live on the telly so that cleared the majority of the debt and we are now in the black.

"Anybody who says it's impossible to make money out of football is talking a lot of s****. Meanwhile we got promoted in 2010 and have been in the play-offs for three of the last four years."

The key, says Campbell, is his good relationship with the Forfar chairmen he has served under. "I haven't been to a board meeting since I started," he grins. "They trust me. I believe I am now the longest-serving manager in Scottish football."

Talking of chairmen, Campbell still finds it hard to believe the young player he shared accommodation with in Dundee 43 years ago now occupies that position with Rangers. "Wattie was 21 and in the first team at Dundee United, while I was 16," he recalls. "Even in those days he was in charge of the digs. His nickname was The Bear and you didn't want to fall out with him. But never in my wildest dreams did I think he would be the chairman of Rangers."

Today's game will be the first of at least three home matches against the Ibrox side for Forfar, as they will meet four times in SPFL League One. That will improve the Angus club's bank balance further but the extra income will not be used to bring in new players. Campbell has already made a series of signings, most prominently Marvin Andrews, Rab Douglas and Darren Dods. They are all hugely experienced players and Campbell believes there is no substitute for that in the management game. He condemns the growing trend in Scottish football to elevate players simply because it is the cheap option.

"At my brother's recruitment company we interview people every day and try to put them in jobs," he says. "Any number are rejected because they don't have experience, but in football it's the opposite - players get put straight into managers' jobs even though there's a massive difference between coaching and managing."

Dick and his twin, will be 60 in November. Plans for retirement are not imminent.