Vinnie Jones named his 'only rival' for the 'hardest man in football' and it's not Roy Keane

Vinnie Jones has named his only 'real rival' for the coveted title of the 'hardest man in football' but it's not who you might expect.

The traditional football 'hard man' is now a dying breed in the modern game, with the rise of VAR and card-happy referees contributing to their decline.

Long gone are the days where a player could get away with a crunching late challenge in the opening minutes of a game, or a sneaky elbow off the ball when the officials are distracted.

Jones was a master of the dark arts during his playing career, particularly as a member of the infamous Wimbledon 'Crazy Gang'.

The former Wales international has never been shy to talk up his hard man credentials and claims there's only one player from his era who could challenge him for the title of the hardest player; Liverpool's Steve McMahon.

McMahon was brought to Liverpool by Kenny Dalglish to replace the tough-tackling Graeme Souness, a year after the Scot's move to Sampdoria in 1984.

He would go on to make 277 appearances, scoring 50 goals, for the Reds - winning three First Division titles and two FA Cups under Dalglish.

Despite all of those achievements, arguably the most famous moment of McMahon's Liverpool career involves Jones.

The pair came up against each other in the 1988 FA Cup final, which resulted in a 1-0 win for Wimbledon – as massive upset which remains one of the biggest shocks in the history of the competition.

McMahon was crunched by a late challenge from Jones in the opening moments of the game, which remarkably didn't even warrant a booking.

McMahon, living up to his hard man reputation, promptly got back to his feet and confronted Jones before later getting his own back in another match with a ferocious challenge on the Welshman.

Jones later claimed McMahon was his 'only real rival' in his era for the title of 'hardest man in football', while he also admitted his challenge on his Liverpool man was premeditated.

"I'd watched a video and [Alan] Hansen or someone would knock the ball to [McMahon] who'd then let it come across him to open up so he could play it out the other side," Jones told talkSPORT [via Liverpool Echo] in 2018.

"The boys knew I was going to smash him because I'd told them that if I could early enough, the referee wasn't going to send me off in front of in front of about 100,000 people, but I didn’t get too much of a response from the lads, so it was a bit of a gamble!"

McMahon in action for Liverpool (Image: Getty)

When asked himself about the title of football's hardest man and Jones' challenge, McMahon told the Liverpool Echo: "Peter Reid wasn't the hardest but he was tough. I don't know any players in this current regime who are like Souness, Reidy, Bryan Robson.

"They gave it and took it, and you just got on with it. We'd always just jump up, shake hands and carry on. That was it.

"He'd [Vinnie Jones] have been sent off straight away for that tackle! No danger, he'd have been sent off. Especially today with VAR.

"But it depends how much of a meal you made of it back then. People are rolling around or whatever today. I’m having none of that.

"I just remember. And then you've got plenty of time to sort yourself out later. Six months later, six weeks later, days or hours, or 14 minutes later, I think it was!"