Grinning Rangers legend Ally McCoist has claimed Fashion Sakala has "ruffled Celtic feathers" with his jibes ahead of the Viaplay Cup final.
The Glasgow rivals go head to head at Hampden to decide the trophy as Ange Postecoglou looks to keep the League Cup at Celtic Park, while Michael Beale is targeting his first piece of silverware since replacing Gio van Bronckhorst. It's set to be a blockbuster game as Scotland's two in-form teams battle it out for bragging rights, and Ibrox forward Sakala has only added the pre-match tensions by taking pot shots at their city rivals.
Sakala refused to name Celtic in his pre-match press conference, instead referring to them as "the other mob". The attacker wouldn't stop there as he insisted Rangers are "a far better club" than Celtic despite the defending Scottish champions holding a nine point advantage at the top of the Scottish Premiership so far this term.
McCoist was keen to get in on the sparring with Chris Sutton on BT Sport's Scottish Football Extra as he praised Sakala's wind-up merchant tactics. He said: "The one thing about Fashion Sakala is, and he has done it before guys, is he has the potential to ruffle Celtic's feathers on the park, but he seems to be doing it off the park now.
"It's very, very interesting. He is certainly ruffling a few Celtic feathers, Chris.
"It's all about psychology, Chris, nowadays. You know what it's like, you try and get in the oppositions head and get them thinking. The wee man seems to be doing it."
However, Sutton was having none of it in his sarcastic response. He fired back: “Do you think he’s got into the Celtic player’s heads? I’m sure there’s panic within the Celtic dressing room.
“Callum McGregor and Kyogo, they’ll be quaking in their boots. (They'll be saying) ‘Wow, he called us the other mob, we’re outraged, let’s take our eyes off the ball guys.'”
The Ibrox fan favourite appeared to concede some ground as he said with a smirk: "I just think back in the day, with big Roy Aitken and Danny McGrain, going to me and if they'd have called me that other mob...well, the umbrage I'd have taken to that. I'd have said Roy you cannot dare call me that."
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