‘I’m not a hard man’: Duncan Ferguson on Everton, pigeons and his biggest regrets

Duncan Ferguson at the Titanic Hotel in Liverpool this week. ‘I’ve always tried to be nice to people,’ he says. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

I served you many times in The Tally Ho pub in Dundee in the early 1990s. You were always a gent. How did your reputation as a hard man sit with you when, for me, you clearly differ from that in real life? Fionan Lynch

I’m not a hard man. I’ve always tried to be nice to people but sometimes I’ve been backed into a corner and got myself into a wee bit of trouble. I played the game aggressively but I don’t think I was even the toughest in any of the dressing rooms I’ve been in. I don’t see myself as a tough guy. But it’s followed me everywhere. A night to gain a reputation and a lifetime to get rid of it.