SUNDERLAND flop Greg Halford made the worst first impression when he was signed at the Stadium of Light by Roy Keane in 2007.
The Black Cats landed Halford from Reading following a £3.5million deal but a disastrous first meeting with then-manager Keane turned into “probably the biggest mistake” of his career.
The versatile defender, who currently plays for Hashtag United in the Isthmian League, was instructed by his agent to ask the Manchester United legend about his transfer plans before putting pen to paper.
The notorious Irish hardman didn’t take kindly at all to the then 22-year-old questioning him about the direction of the club.
That immediately landed the now 38-year-old straight into Keane’s bad books as the Sky Sports pundit never spoke to him again.
Halford told the Undr The Cosh podcast: “Keane was obviously keeping tabs on me for six months.
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“I flew up there, met him, went into his office and I was told by my agent, ‘Ask him these sort of questions’. Like who else are you going to be signing? Because I was his first summer signing.
“I thought ‘if I’m coming from seventh-placed Reading I need to know what type of players you’re going to be bringing in, what your dreams and goals are for the next season’.
“So I asked him that question and oh my God, the daggers that I got.
“I then read his book and he’s got a whole chapter about me, he said ‘I should’ve just pulled the plug [on the transfer] there and then.’ He just over-exaggerates everything and it just wasn’t the case at all.
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“Probably the biggest mistake I made in my football career was asking him that question. From that point, he never talked to me.”
Halford only managed a mere nine appearances for Sunderland until he fell out of favour on January 2008.
That was when the defender was sent out on loan to Charlton and another temporary stint soon followed at Sheffield United.
The ex-England Under-20 international left Sunderland in 2009 when he joined Wolves and ended up having quite a nomadic career.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
