ALAN SHEARER has revealed that Roy Keane once threatened to knock him out during a match.
The fiery duo regularly clashed while playing for Newcastle and Manchester United respectively during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Things nearly boiled over during one match in particular, when Shearer claims Keane wanted to settle things with fists.
Appearing on The Rest is Football podcast, the former England captain was asked by host Gary Lineker what the strangest thing anyone ever said to him on the pitch was.
Shearer, 53, replied: “Roy Keane once said that he was going to knock me out.”
Lineker, 62, wryly responded: “You do surprise me, and did he?”
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To which Shearer laughed and replied: “Come on!”
Lineker then called for Shearer and Keane to settle their differences in the present day, saying: “I think I’d back you against him, Al. Even now.
“I think that people would pay to see that. You get all of these celebrity fights now – get the two of you in UFC gloves or boxing gloves…”
Dampening fans’ hopes, however, Shearer hit back: “I wouldn’t. I’m too old for that s***, Gaz!”
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Micah Richards also answered Lineker’s question, admitting: “The only encounters I had were with Ashley Williams and Clint Dempsey.”
The former Manchester City star went head-to-head with Dempsey during a match.
Recently appearing on CBS Sports, the duo recounted their spat before hilariously recreating their head-to-head fracas in front of stunned host Kate Abdo.
Delving deeper into what happened with Dempsey that day, he told Lineker and Shearer: “Back in the day, he was at Fulham and I was at Man City.
“He was playing sort of left-wing and I was at right-back and I was quite small then, but I had a great leap and I kept winning the ball over him.
“He was just getting frustrated and one of the times I won the ball and he shrugged me like ‘what are you doing’.
“So me being from Chapeltown, I wasn’t having that – there was no chance I was having that! I said f*** off and it went back and forth and then he turned to me and said: “You don’t know where I’m from, dawg!
“I just thought, ‘what are you even on about’. It keeps bubbling on because you think ‘next time I see him he’s getting it’ but around that time people did a bit of research and found that he’s a pretend rapper.
“So the next time I see him, I said ‘f*** me, you can’t even rap’ and I just laid into him, saying: ‘who do you think you are, Eminem?’ I was singing Slim Shady throughout the whole game!”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk