Barry Ferguson was a ferocious competitor as a player.
Fierce, combative, snarling in your face and snapping at your heels at every turn.
He was arguably the Scottish version of former Manchester United and Celtic midfielder Roy Keane.
It is small wonder then that Alex McLeish recalls that former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson once sounded him about Ferguson's attributes as he weighed up a blockbusting move to replace the Republic of Ireland international at Old Trafford after the two had a bust-up and public falling out.
It would have been a sensational career move for Ferguson who was plying his trade at Ewood Park with Blackburn Rovers at the time but somehow the transfer never quite came to fruition.
McLeish insists that Ferguson would have taken a move to the Theatre of Dreams in his stride and that he'd have made an ideal replacement for Keane.
The 66-year-old former Scotland head coach even likened Fergsuon the player to a modern-day Declan Rice.
He said: “I remember Sir Alex Ferguson phoning me around the time he fell out with Roy Keane.
"He said: 'Look, I’m watching Barry Ferguson and he is doing good stuff at Blackburn'.
“He was thinking about him but it never quite happened. Barry would have handled a move like that with no problems because he has a massive mentality and belief in himself.
"He would have been replacing Keane which would have been a big one. I told him back in the day that the gaffer (Sir Alex Ferguson) had mentioned him and asked him about him.
"I told the gaffer he was one of the best I’d ever worked with and seen from my own playing days as a driving midfielder.
"He was like some of the guys you see nowadays like Declan Rice.
"Fergie maybe wasn’t quite the tackler that Roy was - Erling Haaland’s dad knows all about that!
"The move never quite happened.”
He insists that Ferguson has always been a natural-born leader of men.
Ferguson was McLeish's trusted lieutenant at Ibrox with Rangers as well as St Andrews when the two were reunited at Birmingham City.
McLeish recalled a time when Ferguson let Dutch duo Artur Numan and Michael Mols know in no uncertain terms that drawing and defeats at a club like Rangers were viewed as a disaster and equated to a mini-crisis.
McLeish admits the Dutch pairing got the message said: "Barry was the leader in the dressing room, no doubt about it.
"We had our wee shouts at each other at certain moments. You know what you've got with Barry and what you're going to get.
"As a player, you got everything from the first minute to the last. His consistency was fantastic.
“When Artur and Mikey Mols came to Rangers there was a game they talk about. Well, allegedly, because Arthur denies it - although he would!
"The story goes that at the end of a 1-1 draw with somebody at home, the new guys Numan and Mols were talking about going to an Italian bar for a drink. They were laughing.
"Then Fergie grabbed Artur and said: 'Do you have any idea what it takes to play for this club? We only drew today.’
"Arthur and Mikey were taken aback. They both said: ‘We do now.’
"Listen, there are maybe 20 teams in the world that have got to win every single week. That includes Argentine teams in Buenos Aires and places like that.
" I think Rangers are one of them.”
Now Ferguson has crossed over into the technical area and doing the job that he has always coveted on an interim basis.
McLeish who still keeps in regular contact with Ferguson revealed that he had passed on the same words of wisdom that were handed down to him by one of Scottish football's wisest old sages Walter Smith when he assumed managerial control at Rangers.
He said: “When I joined Rangers myself, I spoke to Walter. We all went out for dinner with Ethel and Jill the week I joined.
"I said to Walter: 'You've got to give me some tips, mate, what do you do? He said: ‘Just win'.
“There was a big expletive in between the just and the win. I looked a bit furtively at him because people were looking at him, but that’s what he said and that’s the case.
"Funnily enough, I’ve texted Barry lately telling him to keep his head up and keep his chest out.
"I did give him Walter’s quote which he laughed at.”
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However, McLeish has been mightily impressed with Ferguson in the role as Rangers manager despite the chaos he inherited after the club pulled the trigger on Belgian Philippe Clement's turbulent managerial reign in Govan.
Having learned his managerial trade at lesser lights such as Blackpool (caretaker), Clyde, Kelty Hearts and Alloa, McLeish would dearly love to see Ferguson being handed the keys to the Rangers managerial office and the slate wiped clean.
With potential new investment coming from the USA it would offer the chance to finally get the recruitment side of Rangers up and running again to mount a realistic challenge to Celtic for domestic honours.
He said: "You can't blame Barry. If you look at the level of recruitment, has it been great over the past few years?
"Celtic have taken a big march in that respect.
"Since Barry has gone into management he’s not had the greatest deck of cards. So he's had to try and impose his personality on the teams he’s been with. He’s tried to get something out of them and improve them confidence-wise and man-managed them well and tried to get to the level that he reached.
"So I think Barry has come in I feel he's looked the part of being a Rangers manager. He's said the right things.
“Look, that doesn't mean that they win games because he says the right things. He's got a great pedigree of top-level football as a player. I think he understands top-level players.
“I'd like to see him get his own deck of cards. As David Murray once said to me when we had a barren season.
"I flew over to see him in France, and he said: ‘Look, you’re not getting fired.’ I said: 'Wow, that’s a relief.’
“He just said I hadn’t had a great deck of cards up until that point so let’s go next year. We had more time to bring players in and it wasn’t last minute like it was the year before. We then had that famous helicopter Sunday situation.
“I’m not looking to criticise the players who are there just now and say it’s their fault. I think Barry has definitely got a rise out of one or two of them,
"Recruitment-wise, we've probably not been the best at that over four or five years. Nowadays, it's all algorithms.
“I prefer to see a player with my own eyes and I'm sure that Pep Guardiola - for all the billions he’s spent - would be the same.”
Ferguson will always be known as Barry of the Rangers. He never let anybody down in the red, white and blue.
However, Barry of Manchester United?
Now that would have been something else.
After all, Ferguson like Keane did have a bit of the 'Red Devil' in him as a player.
Alex McLeish was promoting Premier Sports’ live and exclusive coverage of Hearts v Aberdeen on Saturday from 12 pm on Premier Sports 1. Watch Premier Sports via your TV provider on Sky, Virgin TV, STV Player and Amazon Prime as an add-on subscription, and on the Premier Sports’ streaming platform.
