Roy Keane wishes he had not apologised to Sir Alex Ferguson
Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane regrets having apologised to Alex Ferguson after the falling-out which led to him leaving the club in 2005, leaked extracts from his new autobiography have revealed.
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London: Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane regrets having apologised to Alex Ferguson after the falling-out which led to him leaving the club in 2005, leaked extracts from his new autobiography have revealed.
Ferguson criticised Keane in a book of his own last year, and said he had "a savage tongue". The final straw in their relationship had come when Keane did an interview for the club`s in-house television station MUTV, criticising a number of his team mates for a poor performance.
United declined to transmit it and Ferguson insisted on the whole squad watching a video before deciding Keane would have to leave.
There had been widespread anticipation over the volatile Irishman`s response. But amid a welter of expletives, the strongest criticism Keane comes up with is that United could have told him: "Keep your head down, play a few games and come the end of the season we`ll say it was best for you to go."
Instead, he writes, Ferguson and chief executive David Gill already had a statement prepared about his departure when he was summoned to the manager`s office.
Soon after leaving for Celtic, where he played only a handful of games before retiring, Keane apologised to Ferguson.
"Now I kind of wish I hadn’t," Keane writes. "I was apologising for what had happened -- that it had happened. But I wasn’t apologising for my behaviour or stance. There’s a difference -- I had nothing to apologise for."
The former Republic of Ireland international says tensions had been evident at a pre-season training camp that season, when he came close to hitting the first-team coach Carlos Queiroz, who accused him of lacking loyalty.
One person he did hit, he admits, was goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel, in a hotel fight that woke up United director Bobby Charlton and left his team mate with a black eye.
He also says he has no regrets over inflicting the injury on Manchester City`s Alf Inge Haaland in 2001 that effectively ended the Norwegian`s career.
After managing Sunderland and Ipswich Town with little success, Keane worked as a television pundit, which he says was too easy and did not excite him.
He is now assistant manager of the Republic of Ireland and Aston Villa.