Aberdeen legend Sir Alex Ferguson has for the first time admitted his shock 1983 Scottish Cup Final dressing down was a tactic to get stuck into Rangers.
The Dons boss made it a personal mission to leave his former team and Celtic reeling as he became hell-bent on making his team Scotland's best side.
Ferguson was a massive Rangers fan as a boy and fulfilled a lifelong ambition as he turned out in Light Blues for two years as a player between 1967 and 1969.
But the football icon revealed that he wished he told an Ibrox director to "f*** off" when quizzed about his wife Cathy being a practicing Catholic and if the couple married in a chapel.
And Ferguson shocked many when he ripped into his Dons heroes on the pitch in the immediate aftermath of their 1-0 win over Rangers at Hampden to secure Scottish Cup glory.
He offered praise to Willie Miller and Alex McLeish but told the rest he "wasn't going to accept" sub-par displays even if it resulted in silverware.
But in a clip from his upcoming film Never Give In, he admits there may have been an ulterior motive for letting rip.
He said: "I can't understand why I did it.
"The only thing I can think of is I wanted this to be the moment when we set ourselves as the best team Scotland ever had."
When pressed if it was actually about letting the Ibrox side know who was boss, he responded: "I think it was probably about beating Rangers
"This is my moment to say 'right, you're going to get it', I wanted to put the knife in them."
