LOVE HIM or loathe him, you can’t argue that Roy Keane is box office when it comes to punditry.
The Man Utd legend, 50, always offers good value on Super Sunday or ITV, livening up even the dullest game with his explosive views.
And if he’s not digging out a player, he’s rowing with his co-pundits and taking the Mickey out of them.
But don’t be fooled, the former football hardman isn’t all bite. After all, he’s willing to dress up as his grandchildren’s favourite PAW Patrol character for a laugh.
Here’s Keane’s best moments of 2021.
CLASH WITH CARRAGHER
Liverpool and Man Utd legends will always have their differences, long after they’ve retired.
Last month, Keane went toe-to-toe with Jamie Carragher after Manchester United’s 1-1 draw at Chelsea.
The pair locked horns over former caretaker manager’s decision to bench Cristiano Ronaldo for the Premier League clash.
Keane was left open-mouthed by the decision and raged at Carragher after he suggested the Portuguese was best left out due to his lack of effort in defence.
And after Carragher appeared to scoff at the suggestion Ronaldo should be picked because he has scored important goals since his Old Trafford return, the Irishman exploded.
He raged: “What’s the game about?! You’re talking about [Mo] Salah… the game’s about goals Jamie!”
MAGUIRE’S CELEBRATION
Score your goal, maybe crack a smile, and then get back into position for kick off – that’s Keane’s idea of a celebration.
So, when Harry Maguire found the net for England against Albania and cupped his ears in response to his critics who had slammed his recent performances, the ex-hatchet man wasn’t impressed.
Keane moaned: “Puts his hands to his ears like he shutting the critics up. But I think that’s embarrassing.
“He’s been a disgrace the last couple months for Manchester United. He thinks if he scores there, he’s going to shut his critics up. Embarrassing.”
SOFT SIDE
For all his toughness and talk, Keane can be a big softy.
And he will do anything for his grandchildren, who absolutely dotes on and shares family time on his brilliant Instagram account.
Including dressing up as animated puppy Chase from popular kids’ cartoon PAW Patrol.
Captioning the snap of him in a giant dog costume, Keane quipped he’s only doing it to pay for his pool heating bill.
He joked: “Available for party hire. I don’t like parties or kids but the pool needs heating.”
WOUND UP BY RICHARDS
Clearly, Keane has a soft spot for fellow Sky Sports pundit Micah Richards.
But he couldn’t see the funny side when the former Man City star showed him a trending TikTok video of a video game animation of his FIFA 21 character performing a dance celebration.
Richards shared a video of the moment on social media, bursting into laughter at Keane’s stoney-faced reaction.
Even Graeme Souness couldn’t help crack a smile at the hilarious moment.
Richards joked on Twitter: “A lot of fans asked me to show Roy a funny video from TikTok and I wasn’t going to let you all down… I just can’t play you the real audio.”
GRAB SOLSKJAER
Keane, being a close pal of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, regularly backed his old team mate when the daggers were out over his management style.
But even he was flabbergasted with his continued belief with Brazilian midfielder Fred.
And it came to afoot at half-time during the Manchester derby, with United being bossed off the park and trailing 1-0.
Keane said he would grab Solskjaer for his team selection and seethed: “If Ole walked in here now I’d grab him and say why are you playing Fred?”
The performance was so bad at half time he also claimed ‘I give up.’ as he conceded: “These are international footballers I can’t understand the defending.
“I give up. I’m driving down here today thinking, ‘I wonder, you know Man United will have their chance, they’re at home’.
“They’ve been like this all season, giving up chances, and City got a little bit arrogant and gave them one or two chances, but it’s two at the moment, unless United do something drastic it’ll be another four or five.”
STILL FIERY
Back in October, Keane showed there’s still a bit of devil in him when he stood up to a supporter who abused him.
A supporter called him “an absolute p****” as he signed autographs outsideOld Trafford.
The fan is first heard saying in a video that appeared online: “You’re a legend of this club.”
Keane replies: “What am I trying to do? Hang around all day and sign autographs? I’ve signed autographs!”
The fan then asks: “What are you being like that?”
Keane replies: “Like what? Like what? What did I do?”
At that point the supporter says: “An absolute p***.”
Keane tells him: “Oh, because you’ve had a few drinks and they [United] got beat you’re taking it out on me? What’s that got to do with me?
“You’ve had a few drinks, I can tell. What have you had, two pints? Tell all your mates not to lecture me.”
‘AVERAGE’ SPURS
During a live video link with Jamie Redknapp, Keane just loved stirring the pot about average Spurs back in February.
Roy’s view was that Tottenham did not have a good enough team to compete with Europe’s best.
But Jamie wasn’t having any of it in a heated argument.
And when Redknapp pointed to the fact the club had international footballers in their squad, Keane wasn’t impressed.
“If you can trap the ball, you can play for your country these days,” he hilariously quipped.
@font-face{font-family:’The Sun’;src:url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Regular.woff2’) format(‘woff2’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Regular.woff’) format(‘woff’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Regular.ttf’) format(‘truetype’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Regular.svg#’) format(‘svg’);font-style:normal;font-weight:400;font-display:swap;}@font-face{font-family:’The Sun’;src:url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Medium.woff2’) format(‘woff2’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Medium.woff’) format(‘woff’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Medium.ttf’) format(‘truetype’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Medium.svg#’) format(‘svg’);font-style:normal;font-weight:500;font-display:swap;}@font-face{font-family:’The Sun’;src:url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-HeavyNarrow.woff2’) format(‘woff2’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-HeavyNarrow.woff’) format(‘woff’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-HeavyNarrow.ttf’) format(‘truetype’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-HeavyNarrow.svg#’) format(‘svg’);font-style:normal;font-weight:400;font-stretch:semi-condensed;font-display:swap;}@font-face{font-family:’The Sun’;src:url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Bold.woff2’) format(‘woff2’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Bold.woff’) format(‘woff’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Bold.ttf’) format(‘truetype’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-Bold.svg#’) format(‘svg’);font-style:normal;font-weight:700;font-stretch:normal;font-display:swap;}@font-face{font-family:’The Sun’;src:url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-HeavyNarrow.woff2’) format(‘woff2’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-HeavyNarrow.woff’) format(‘woff’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-HeavyNarrow.ttf’) format(‘truetype’),url(‘/assets/fonts/the-sun/TheSun-HeavyNarrow.svg#’) format(‘svg’);font-style:normal;font-weight:700;font-stretch:condensed;font-display:swap;}.css-qu9fel{border-top:1px solid #dcdddd;}.css-b9nmbi{margin-bottom:16px;border-top:1px solid #dcdddd;}
Most read in Football
.css-1gojmfd{margin-bottom:16px;}
STILL HAS A RIVALRY WITH VIEIRA
Earlier in the campaign, Keane was at the Emirates Stadium for Arsenal’s clash with Chelsea.
Banter of the highest order was exchanged with Gunners fans as he waited to shoot live link.
One can be heard shouting, “Where’s Patrick? Where’s Vieira?”
A smiling Keane then pointed to his pocket, implying that’s where the former French captain is.
Keane also told Gary Neville that he believed he was a better player than his fierce rival.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
