Interim gaffer Barry Ferguson reckons the squad of domestic no-hopers he inherited from Philippe Clement are all a bit too squeaky clean for his liking.

They certainly lack the nasty streak the club's former skipper was famed for during his playing days.

Fergie was the type who would be just as likely to fire one into the top corner as he would be to stick an opponent into the stand.

That's the sort of thing you can get away with amid the chaos and clatter of Scottish football.

However, in Europe, you'll find the specialists in the dark arts operate with a less obvious, more cerebral touch.

And there have been few better at it down the years than the man Ferguson will be standing opposite in the dugout tonight.

There's no denying Jose Mourinho has overstepped the line at times. Remember that fish-hook finger he planted in the gub of Barcelona rival Tito Vilanova during a notorious El Clasico bust-up.

But this is a man who has long possessed a sleight of hand when it comes to bending the rules. The Fenerbahce boss once hid himself in a laundry basket to get around a stadium ban.

He was master of the withering putdown too, famously branding Arsenal rival Arsene Wenger a "specialist in failure".

He gave the mind games another go last night as he questioned whether the Ibrox faithful would really "accept" a repeat of the rope-a-dope tactics that earned their 3-1 first-leg triumph in Istanbul. But Ferguson was wise to that kind of thing as a player and is just as guarded now he's in charge.