LEGEND LIFTS THE LID ON DRINKING, VIOLENCE AND MELLOWING OUT

HE once beat a burglar so badly, his wife thought he had killed him. He has four assault convictions, the last of which landed him in one of Britain’s toughest jails.

- by ANDY DUNN

In his playing career, he collected nine red cards - including a joint-record eight in the Premier League.

But former Rangers, Everton and Newcastle United striker Duncan Ferguson insists: "I’m not the big hard case that everyone makes me out to be.

"I've got the record. I've got the red cards, they are there. I've got other things that happened off the field, they are there. But I'm not that man.

"You get that reputation. You have got to deal it with your whole life... Big Dunc, the hardest man in football. Let me tell you... I've never even been the hardest man in my dressing rooms."

Three decades on from that stretch in Barlinnie, the Glasgow prison known as The Big Hoose, for headbutting Raith Rovers defender John McStay during a game, it is fair to say Ferguson has mellowed out a bit. Or a lot.