Roy Keane's most savage moments after he said he has NO regrets
You sure you’ve got no regrets, Roy? From ending Alf-Inge Haaland’s career and stamping on Gareth Southgate’s genitals to THAT ‘stick it up your b******s’ rant, Keane’s hall of shame is full of savage and x-rated moments
- Roy Keane opened up to Micah Richards about the fieriest moment in his career
- The pair did a Q&A session during SkyBet’s Road to Wembley Euro 2020 series
- Richards brought up the infamous tackle Keane made on Erling Haaland’s father
- Keane says he doesn’t regret anything he did on a pitch and was simply ‘in battle’
- Sportsmail looks back at some of his most controversial moments as a player
Roy Keane’s no-nonsense reputation within football needs no introduction.
As a player it saw him captain both Manchester United and the Republic of Ireland – winning 13 major honours with the former.
As well as being a fearless leader, the central midfielder was known for seeing red and sometimes overstepping the mark.
Roy Keane (right) told Micah Richards that he didn’t regret any of his controversial moments
Now currently a TV pundit, the 50-year-old was asked by his Sky colleague, and Sportsmail columnist, Micah Richards if he had any regrets from the actions he took during his playing days.
‘Can I tell you something, I have never regretted anything I have done on a football pitch, never,’ Keane, 49, replied with conviction on SkyBet’s Road to Wembley segment in preparation for Euro 2020.
‘I’ve been sent off and I’ve let my team down.’
In light of Keane’s stance, Sportsmail looks back at some of his most controversial moments as a player.
The infamous tackle on Alf-Inge Haaland (2001)
Let’s start with the most controversial moment of Keane’s playing career and the one that prompted his above comments.
Just over 20 years ago, in April 2001, Keane virtually ended the career of long-time foe Alf Inge-Haaland.
The incident happened in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford with Haaland playing for Manchester City. The pair’s rivalry started during Haaland’s time at Leeds United when Haaland accused Keane of feigning injury during a game in 1997, when Keane had in fact just ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament.
In April 2001, Keane’s sickening challenge on Alf-Inge Haaland all but ended his career
An angry Keane snarled over the injured Haaland – like the latter had done to him with Leeds
Letting the ball get away from him in the 2001 Manchester derby, Keane viciously planted his right foot high into the knee of Haaland who had nipped the ball from him.
It was late and deliberate and caused a melee between both sets of players before referee David Elleray sent him off.
To make matters more sinister Keane snarled over the stricken Norwegian as he walked past telling him: ‘Don’t ever stand over me again sneering about fake injuries. And tell your pal [David] Wetherall there’s some for him as well.’
The match ended 1-1 but nobody remembers it for the scoreline.
Keane was slapped with a five-match ban and a hefty fine, while Haaland made just a handful more appearances before retiring in 2003, although he did make a brief comeback in the Norwegian third tier in 2011-12 for Rosseland.
Keane was shown a red card by referee David Elleray following the incident at Old Trafford
https://youtube.com/watch?v=p_st29mlQwU%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1
Speaking about the incident further with Richards on SkyBet, Keane reflected: ‘To me I was in the battle with people, I was in the middle of the park.’
Richards suggested that Keane did not mean to seriously injure the Norwegian and the former United man agreed, insisting it was a case of looking simply to hurt Haaland.
‘No, no of course,’ said Keane, before further elaborating: ‘Did I go to hurt players? Of course I did.
‘I’d never apologise for that. And people went to hurt me.
‘I never, ever went out to injure a player in my life, [but] did I go out to hurt players? Course.
‘When you go for a ball in the middle of the park there’s a good chance that somebody is going to get hurt.’
Keane told Richards that he never went to injure Haaland but he did seek to hurt his rival
Stamping on Gareth Southgate’s genitals (1995)
Haaland isn’t the only one to have been on the sharp end of Keane’s studs.
Six years prior in April 1995, Keane received the first red card of his professional career within English football for a ‘tackle’ on… er… Gareth Southgate’s tackle during United’s FA Cup 2-0 semi-final replay win over Crystal Palace.
Overrunning the ball in midfield, Southgate was dispossessed by Keane in the Red Devils’ half at Villa Park.
Keane sparked a melee in 1995 after stamping on the privates of Gareth Southgate (bottom)
Keane was incensed after a wild challenge from Southgate during the 1995 FA Cup semi-final
With the whistle already blown, the now England manager launched into a late scissor challenge on Keane – one that affected an already sore left ankle.
In retaliation, Keane stamped not once but twice on Southgate’s private parts, furious at the defender’s challenge, sparking a mass spat between both sets of teams.
Referee Elleray, yes the same official who sent him off for the challenge on Haaland, gave him his marching orders while Southgate received a yellow card for his wild lunge.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=NKQr9h5MB0w%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1
Walking out on Ireland at the 2002 World Cup
Keane also courted controversy while on Republic of Ireland duty too.
Not one who is afraid to speak his own mind, his country’s preparations for the 2002 World Cup were rocked when their captain stormed out of their base unhappy with their facilities.
Mick McCarthy’s squad were in Saipan, Japan and Keane compared their base to ‘like a car park’.
Keane was dismissed from the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup squad in 2002 in Saipan, Japan after a huge bust-up with manager Mick McCarthy (right) over their training facilities
Having initially walked out on the squad, Keane was persuaded to return but things soon turned very ugly. After Keane expressed his concerns once more, this time to the Irish Times, McCarthy decided to confront his captain in front of all the playing and coaching staff.
McCarthy wanted an explanation for his comments which read: ‘You’ve seen the training pitch and I’m not being a prima donna. Training pitch, travel arrangements, getting through the bloody airport when we were leaving, it’s the combination of things. I would never say “that’s the reason or this is the reason”, but enough is enough.’
Keane didn’t step down from his stance and as the argument escalated he launched into a 10-minute tirade about his manager.
The Ireland captain called McCarthy a ‘f****** w*****’ during a 10-minute explosive rant
‘Mick, you’re a liar… you’re a f****** w*****,’ he infamously said.
‘I didn’t rate you as a player, I don’t rate you as a manager, and I don’t rate you as a person. You’re a f****** w***** and you can stick your World Cup up your a***. The only reason I have any dealings with you is that somehow you are the manager of my country! You can stick it up your b*******.’
The outcome? Keane returned home and missed out on the World Cup as his team-mates reached the last 16 before losing on penalties to Spain.
Tunnel spat with Patrick Vieira (2005)
If we’re talking midfield battles, the finest in the Premier League era without doubt remains Keane versus Patrick Vieira.
The two were the best of enemies with Keane captaining United and Vieira skippering Arsenal. The two clubs were at the forefront of English football throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, meaning these two were always set for fireworks when they clashed.
By 2005 Chelsea had gatecrashed the scene and were on the charge to their first title in 50 years but that didn’t stop all eyes arrowing in on Arsenal versus Manchester United on February 1, 2005.
Keane and Patrick Vieira nearly came to blows in the tunnel at Highbury in February 2005
Keane was upset with his Arsenal midfield rival ahead of kick-off which United won 4-2
Keane and Vieira had to be be pulled apart in the tunnel before the match with referee Graham Poll trying to defuse the situation.
Keane was incensed by the actions of Vieira, who he felt was trying to bully and intimidate United right back Gary Neville before kick-off.
‘As I walked to the front I heard something going on at the top of the tunnel’, wrote Keane in his autobiography.
‘All I could see was a few fingers, pointing at Gary. I lost it. Five seconds earlier I’d been perfectly calm, in the zone, ready for the match.’
Keane would go on to have the last laugh that night as United won 4-2 against the Gunners to complete a league double over their bitter rivals.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=NlO9dsTpDJ8%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1
Fighting with Peter Schmeichel (1998)
When you think of team-mates fighting one another, Lee Bowyer versus Kieron Dyer (Newcastle) and David Batty against Graeme Le Saux (Blackburn Rovers) immediately come to mind as both incidents were mid-game.
However, Keane got into it with United team-mate Peter Schmeichel during their 1998 pre-season tour of Hong Kong.
There had been an underlying tension between the Red Devils beforehand and this spilled over into physical blows on the 27th floor of their hotel after a few drinks.
Keane headbutted team-mate Peter Schmeichel (pictured in 1995) during a pre-season tour
‘I had a bust-up with Peter when we were on a pre-season tour of Asia, in 1998, just after I came back from my cruciate injury. I think we were in Hong Kong. There was drink involved,’ Keane writes in his autobiography.
‘Myself and Nicky Butt had had a night out, and we bumped into Peter at the hotel reception desk. It was about two in the morning. We said a few words to one another – a bit of banter, a bit of stick. I went to Nicky’s room for some room service, had a sandwich, got up to go – and Peter was waiting for me, outside the room.
‘He said, “I’ve had enough of you. It’s time we sorted this out”.’
‘So I said, “Okay.” ‘And we had a fight.’
Despite being team-mates for years there was a simmering tension that erupted in 1998
Amazingly Keane, who woke up with a sore fist, couldn’t recall the scrap the next day and had to be told by Butt that he had headbutted Schmeichel – causing the goalkeeper to have a black eye. Fate would then see the pair sat next to each other at a United press conference at the next destination of their tour.
To make matters worse the pair were then reprimanded by manager Sir Alex Ferguson upon their return to England over the incident once the tour had ended – which had also disturbed club icon Sir Bobby Charlton.
Keane recalls in his autobiography that conversation with Ferguson. ‘He [Ferguson] said, “The two of you were fighting”.’ He knew exactly where we’d fought – I think he mentioned the 27th floor. He told us that we were a disgrace to the club and that we’d woken Bobby Charlton up, that Bobby had come out of his room and seen us.’
Despite that altercation, Schmeichel and Keane both played key roles as United won the Treble that season.
At the end of that 1998-99 season United won the Treble with the duo playing a key role in that
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