That made national headlines, and perhaps Ferguson has lived to regret it, but there was certainly something behind it.
The parting of the ways, after Ferguson had built his Aberdeen team around the midfielder, then followed him to Man Utd.
But Sir Alex Ferguson is hardly everyone's cup of tea. A gentleman in victory ... a spoilt snarling bastard in defeat.
Man Utd fans love him - the rest of the world ... not so much.
So what of Strachan? And why has he come to Boro, when perhaps he could have had bigger fish to fry?
Kevin Richardson (Darlington’s assistant manager who played under him at Coventry City): “People often take him the wrong way when he’s just trying to have a bit of banter.
“He’ll throw things out to see if people recognise what he’s said. That’s his way of assessing players and people in the media as well.
“He’ll sit there and come out with a line and watch people’s expressions and think to himself ‘well, I’ve seen four out of these ten people have a little smile which means the other six haven’t a clue what I’m talking about’.”
He was relegated with Coventry but Strachan stepped in at Southampton and lifted them from the bottom three to 11th place at the end of the season.
The following seasonthey ended eighth and runners-up to Arsenal in the FA Cup – which was enough to secure a place in the UEFA Cup.
He was shortlisted for the Scotland job twice.
Gordon Strachan: “My first love is being a coach. The greatest enjoyment I have had is making players better.
“When you become a coach you take an oath, just like a doctor does to make people better, a coach is the same. You don’t do it to make yourself better.
“I don’t liken myself to anyone else. I worked under Jock Stein, Billy McNeil, Howard Wilkinson, Ron, Sir Alex, and they have all been terrific. They all have different styles.
"Howard is completely different to Ron, Ron is completely different to anyone else on the planet. I have worked under so many but it has to be me that coaches in my own way.”
After taking over at Celtic in 2005, they lost 5-0 to Slovakian champions Artmedia Bratislava in Europe then drew with Motherwell 4-4.
Not the perfect start and the Tims gave him a hard time for a while, but he took Celtic to a League and Cup double that year.
He left Parkhead in May this year, because they were too cash-strapped to give him money for transfers, and eye-brows were raised when he came to Boro ... who are hardly in a position to grant him a king's ransom.
Don't get me wrong, I'm pleased he's here at the Riverside. But there's something at the back of my mind that suggests we won't have him long.