Former Scotland and Rangers captain Barry Ferguson is the latest figure from Scottish football to sit down with Peterhead midfielder Si Ferry his series of interviews for Open Goal.
We've heard some great stories from the likes of Aiden McGeady, Scott McDonald, and Kris Boyd in recent weeks, and were expecting more of the same from a very interesting character in Ferguson, but what we did not expect to hear was his admiration for Roy Keane.
Anyone who saw Barry Ferguson play for Rangers against Celtic would be forgiven for thinking that he absolutely hates everything about Celtic, and while he admitted for 90 minutes that was true whenever the two clubs met, once the final whistle had gone he held no grudges.
After praising Neil Lennon and Stiliyan Petrov as his toughest battles in Old Firm games, Ferguson had special praise for Roy Keane despite his allegiance to Celtic.
I enjoyed them all. I had a lot of time for Neil Lennon, he got quite a bit of criticism for the type of player he was but he was the player Celtic needed. He wouldn't go and win you a game but he just sat in the middle and did a great job.
Stan Petrov, I thought he was an excellent player, Paul Lambert was another guy I had a lot of respect for. Some good battles.
Roy Keane was probably one of my favourite midfielders of all time. I know he's a Celtic man, but you've got to see what he did with Man Utd. He was coming to the end of his career [when Ferguson faced him in Scotland] but it was great to play against him.
Lenny [Neil Lennon] was the battle - Celtic man through and through, I'm obviously brought up a Rangers man - two guys that just want to win and people don't realise, during that game; hate each other, wanted to kill each other basically to win for you team, after that; it's all forgotten about.
The respect is there.
Ferguson also described how he would occasionally see guys like Neil Lennon, or other Celtic players, while out and about, and the tension that would be caused when he would share a beer with them, as that was something that was 'not supposed to happen'.
Much of the discussion throughout the first episode of the chat is on how similar the pressures of playing for Rangers and Celtic were, and how there was always a level of mutual respect between the big players because they knew exactly what defeat or victory meant.
If nothing else watching the interview will have you pining for the Old Firm derbies of the past.
You can watch episode one of Barry Ferguson's chat with Si Ferry below:
