Intense rivalry spawned mutual admiration and, eventually, a complementary partnership. Yesterday, Walter Smith gave a tribute to Tommy Burns that encapsulated the warmth of spirit and depth of dedication that characterised the former Celtic manager.

Smith punctuated his testimonial with his own personal reminiscences of a football foe who became a firm friend and international ally.

Smith was made aware of Burns's death, aged 51, on Thursday morning, as he prepared to return from Manchester after Rangers' 2-0 defeat to Zenit St Petersburg. After years entrenched in opposing Old Firm camps, the pair restored respectability to the Scotland national team after the departure of Berti Vogts in 2005.

The Rangers manager's sombre monologue was intermittently brightened by memories of Burns' personality. "He was one of the best people I've ever had the opportunity to work with," said Smith. "Football aside, he was also a terrific man, with a nice manner about him. The more I got to know Tommy, the more I got to enjoy that side to him. He was a very humorous man, but a very sincere man as well. It is a really sad loss for everybody, especially for his wife Rosemary and the family."

Burns tried in vain to halt Smith's juggernaut en route to a record-equalling nine championships in a row, yet he did so with a penchant for flair that ensured ongoing popularity and respect after he was sacked at the height of Rangers' dominance. Smith recalled the diligence and dignity that underpinned Burns' management style in the unforgiving environment of Old Firm rivalry.

"That was a time when, in terms of football, it was difficult for both of us," said Smith. "In a country like Scotland with its goldfish bowl, when you are in charge of trying to achieve nine-in-a-row - or in Tommy's case, trying to prevent nine-in-a-row - then it is a tough time for a manager. Celtic's nine-in-a-row was a proud record for them, but I don't think anyone could have handled that any better than Tommy did.

"His team did everything it could - you couldn't have asked for any more of a manager in one season. Celtic lost just one league game that 1996-97 season, which was a remarkable achievement, but it still didn't win them the championship. There was something going on then that none of us had a great deal of control over. But Tommy handled all that with a great deal of dignity.

"He got sacked by Celtic, but in any other set of circumstances, he'd probably have gone on to be a very successful Celtic manager."

Their paths would cross when Smith's exile from football was ended by the Scottish Football Association in 2005. Vogts' sacking initiated a reunion between two Old Firm gunslingers and it was with Scotland that Smith encountered the beauty and charm of Burns.

"From the outside, I'd always imagined Tommy to be a very meticulous manager, but he had this delightful harum-scarum side about him," he began with a grin. "He would forget things and leave things behind. He used to tell a great story about the time when he was with Berti Vogts and Scotland, when he accidentally left the sheets with all the set-play diagrams under his bed at Cameron House.

"At Hampden, Wee Berti then asked him, have you got the set-plays?' and Tommy said, aye', knowing full well he'd left them under his bed. Berti realised that Tommy wasn't putting the sheets up, while Tam was phoning for taxis to get them brought up. It was an important game, and Berti was apparently going off his head, but that's what Tommy was like."

It was a side to Burns's character Smith would soon get to know, not least during Scotland's final shot at qualification for the 2006 World Cup, against Norway in September 2005. "Tommy had a habit of falling asleep," he added. "I remember the World Cup qualifier we played against Norway, which was a very important game, and I was in the dressing room before hand giving it my state of the nation address to the players.

"There was Tommy, my assistant, in the front row asleep. I had to stop because I was laughing. Later I said to him, was my team-talk that good that you fell asleep?' He said aye'. Tommy had that about him. He just had a nice way to him."

Rangers' backroom team of Ally McCoist and Kenny McDowall were also affected by the untimely and premature death of the man under whom they both coached, at Scotland and Celtic respectively. "The whole place here is saddened by the news," said Smith.

Burns' passion for his club enabled him to transcend the tribalist tendencies of Glasgow's big two. "There are few who epitomise a club more than Tommy Burns did for Celtic," said Smith. "He was a Celtic man: a supporter as a kid all the way through to having a terrific career for them. For me, Tommy showed everything that was good about Celtic. I think there is a respect in Rangers supporters for someone whom they know to be a true Celtic man. He was there as man and boy, and I think Rangers supporters respect that. Tommy had a respect for Rangers too - a dignified one in the sense that he never criticised Rangers about anything, he held the club in a great deal of respect."