Roy Keane says that certain players, including Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand, were “not for him” during his later years as Man Utd captain.
The former Republic of Ireland international won seven Premier League titles, four FA Cups and a Champions League during his successful time at Old Trafford under Sir Alex Ferguson.
When Jamie Carragher asked how Keane dealt being in his 30s and dealing with youngsters coming through like Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, the Man Utd legend replied on Sky Sports: “Your dressing room is always changing, most summers one or two new players would come in, the dynamics change, young players coming in.
GOSSIP: ‘Determined’ Man United to let trio go for £130m
“Obviously people like Wayne [Rooney] and Rio [Ferdinand], [Darren] Fletcher and [John] O’Shea and all these lads were in the dressing room.
“I think the dynamics were changing, which I always used to roll with, I didn’t mind I enjoyed it as it would give you a new type of energy especially if they were good players, you go ‘listen, they’ll help us win trophies’.
“But towards the end I remember thinking with some of these lads: ‘nah I’m not really getting some of these. I don’t get their banter, I don’t get their humour.’
“I probably very rarely had a conversation with any of them. I was constantly thinking of the bigger picture, where they going to be good players for Man United and that was the most important thing.
“So even when I left the club there wasn’t a lot of players I actually missed one bit, I just thought ‘no they weren’t for me’ the game was changing. I looked around the dressing room sometimes after training and the amount of players on their phones and all that type of thing.
“I’m a bit old school and a bit grumpy or whatever I don’t know and I didn’t get it. Wayne and Rio, I didn’t get their banter, I didn’t get what they stood for sometimes. You know, that was just a personal thing but the game is changing obviously and I’ve changed with it.
“Towards the end at United with the type of players that were coming through, I didn’t always get them. I just thought personality-wise they are not for me. But they were all obviously very, very good players and I was a professional and I was delighted to play with them.
“But in terms of having banter with them and having a cup of tea and a coffee or anything like that with them, nah forget it.”
We could not keep away from the camera for long so we made a Football365 Isolation Show. Watch it, subscribe and share until we get back in the studio/pub and produce something a little slicker…
Click Here: Geelong Cats Guernsey