Alex McLeish is curious how Celtic reached the UEFA cup final last year, so he decides on a visit to Celtic Park to see how Martin O'Neill coaches his team.
After a day he is not really impressed by the training practices, so he asks O'Neill how he gets his players so sharp.
'Well it is simple. I sometimes ask my players a difficult question, and that way they stay really sharp mentally'.
Of course Alex wants an example, so O'Neill asks Larsson to come over to the touchline.
O'Neill asks: ' Henrik, he is not your brother, but still he is your father's son. Who is he?'
'That is not difficult', Henrik answers immediately, 'Of course that is me'.
'You see? That's the way you keep them sharp', O'Neill says to McLeish.
McLeish, who wants to progress in Europe also, decides to bring this into Rangers's practice the next day. He calls Fernando Ricksen over to the touchline. 'Fernando, I have a question for you', he says, 'He is not your brother, but still he is your father's son, who is he?'.
'Bleedin' 'ell', is the wild one's reply, 'That is a tough one to answer, can I sleep on that one night, and why have you asked me this question?'
McLeish explains it has to do with some continental coaching trick and agrees with the one night postponement.
So that night Ricksen decides to call Stefan Klos. He has played in Germany, maybe he knows something about these coaching methods. 'Stefan, maybe you know the answer to this question, he is not your brother, but still he is your father's son. Who is he?'.
'That is easy, that is me!', says Stefan Klos.
So the next day Fernando walks full of confidence to McLeish. Alex asks: 'Fernando, do you know the answer to my question now?'.
'Yes it was actually very easy', he says, 'It's Stefan Klos'..
McLeish answers: 'No of course not you f#cking a#sehole. It's Henrik Larsson.'
