MANCHESTER City manager Pep Guardiola has paid tribute to Walter Smith after the Rangers legend sadly passed away aged 73 on Tuesday morning.
The Spaniard and the former Scotland boss were acquainted through the League Manager's Association (LMA), where Smith worked as a technical consultant, and the pair struck a friendship.
Guardiola described Smith as a "humble, insightful and very genuine man" as he extended his condolences to the Ibrox great's family.
"I am so very sad to hear the news of Walter Smith’s passing," he said.
"I was of course very aware of Walter’s impressive management career before I came to the Premier League.
"Through his role as technical consultant for the LMA, I have had the opportunity over the past five years to get to know him and see what a humble, insightful and very genuine man he was.
"I always enjoyed spending time with Walter and we had been planning to have dinner together again.
"I feel very fortunate to have had the chance to get to know him and I send my deepest condolences to Walter’s wife Ethel, his sons Neil and Steven, his grandchildren and all of his family who have lost a very special man."
David Moyes, the West Ham manager and LMA executive committee member, also paid tribute to a "true friend and mentor".
"I looked up to Walter with so much respect," he said. "He was such a great Scottish manager but, to me, he was an even better man.
"He was honourable, he showed great dignity, and always demonstrated such class. He was a true friend and mentor, and a man I feel privileged to have known. He will always be remembered fondly.
"My thoughts are with all of Walter's family."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here