Celtic boss Gordon Strachan has broken his silence on the blow-up with his former Aberdeen and Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

Strachan was upset by Fergie's remark in a 1999 autobiography claiming his fellow Scot "could not be trusted an inch".

But the pair have patched up their relationship since, and Strachan now hails his former boss at Old Trafford as football's greatest-ever manager and appreciates his distinctive methods.

Strachan, 50, said: "I said he was a bully but I never said I didn't like him.

"Unless you're weak-minded then you'll have a problem, he'll probably crush you. You'd have to go and find another job somewhere, or find a psychiatrist.

"But he was good for me. He's good for anyone who's worked with him."

Strachan came through the experience and maintains he benefited from working with Ferguson at Aberdeen and United, despite the often tense nature of their relationship.

He added: "I've not got a problem with his bullying. We could call it forceful management.

"I've not got a problem with it because his job is to get success for his fans and his employers.

"I've never got a problem with that. I think he's the best manager of all time."

Ferguson and Strachan have been two of Scotland's most successful managers and the pair have each savoured Champions League victories over the other.

On each occasion their teams have squared up, the focus on the relationship between the pair has been scrutinised.

Strachan believes the fact he won the English league title before Ferguson, having moved to Leeds from Manchester United, may have had a part to play in the perception of a personality clash.

He said: "It happens everywhere in football and it just so happened ours had got magnified so many times.

"The reason it got magnified was that I left United and went to Leeds and we won the title first. And people made big things about this."

However Strachan believes his move away from Old Trafford in 1989 was beneficial all round.

He added: "The week after I left, I said it was the right thing for everybody.

"It was the right time for me to move on. I went on to have a successful career and Alex went on to have an even more successful career. So there's two winners out of that.

"Like any relationship, if we'd spoken more openly, you don't have these problems.

"Because we didn't speak we allowed these things to manifest itself into a media frenzy."