Manchester United legend Roy Keane has revealed that he was on the receiving end of a legal threat from the club back in 2008, and conceded that his professional relationship with manager Sir Alex Ferguson has broken down.
The 40-year-old passed up the opportunity to be part of a celebration of Sir Alex’s 25th anniversary at Old Trafford, and is quoted by The Sunday Times as saying: “The way it [my United career] ended, the legal letter, I couldn’t have gone and sat there like everything was great. He [Sir Alex] would come and we all stand up and clap, I couldn’t have done that.”
Keane’s comments provide some context for the recent verbal sparring between the pair in the media. The Irishman is currently a football pundit following spells managing Sunderland and Ipswich Town, and was critical on television of the Red Devils’ exit from the Champions League.
In response, Sir Alex penned a thinly-veiled retort to Keane in last weekend’s programme notes, saying: “My immediate job is to sift through the disappointment and the criticism to get everything in perspective and I can tell you already that I still have faith in our players. We will take a lot of stick from critics and even from people we thought were perhaps on our side but we mustn’t dwell on that.”
The Scot has also questioned the managerial acumen of his former captain, who was sacked as Ipswich boss in January following a poor run of results.
Now Keane has in turn responded to Sir Alex’s barbs, suggesting that his one-time manager was attempting to turn United’s supporters against him.
“There was an angle there of trying to get the fans to look differently at me and I thought, ‘I can’t have that’. I thought that was ridiculous,” said Keane.
“If you want to question my managerial record, listen, you could question every pundit’s managerial skill in relation to his and we’re all going to come up short [against Sir Alex]. But I would also say that without players like myself, maybe he wouldn’t have such a good managerial record because players who go down the punditry road, it’s soon forgotten that we put bodies on the line for him.”
The former United captain also insisted that his former boss did not back him at all times, pointing towards the twilight of his career.
“People say he stood by me in difficult times,” Keane said. “But [he didn’t] when I was 34, not when I was towards the end and had a few differences with Carlos Queiroz. All of a sudden then, ‘Off you go, Roy, and here’s the statement we’ve done’.”
However, he maintained that he harboured no ill feeling towards the club, adding: “I count my blessings to have played for Manchester United. All of my family are United fans and I don’t have any bitterness towards Man United, please let’s make that clear.”