Tom Cleverley will tell you, Roy Keane and Aston Villa were never a good fit.
The Republic of Ireland assistant manager’s short spell as Paul Lambert’s number two came to an abrupt end after an alleged training ground bust-up with players in November 2014.
Keane subsequently spent 15 minutes outside Cleverley’s house, after suspecting the former Manchester United midfielder was responsible for spreading the rumour of a dispute.
At Wednesday’s Bord Gáis Energy ‘Winning in Business’ event in his native city, the Corkman went into a little more detail on why things did not work out for him at Villa.
It will resonate with a lot of fans, who saw their club relegated at Old Trafford Saturday after a miserable season under Tim Sherwood, Remi Garde and caretaker Eric Black.
Keane suggests losing was an acceptable outcome at the club, especially when compared to the environment he helped create as captain at Manchester United.
“We had a culture where, if you were beaten on a Saturday — people talk about bouncing back and moving on quickly — but Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, lads would still be fuming, and I loved that,” said Keane.
“When I went to Aston Villa, Paul Lambert said to me, ‘We have a policy where, if we have a bad result at the weekend, we stew on it for 24 hours and move on quickly’, and I said, ‘Well, I can’t do that’. For me, it might be closer to 24 days. Obviously, Villa were used to it, I wasn’t.
“I couldn’t understand the environment where everyone is laughing and joking on the Monday after a bad game. At Sunderland, people thought that I used to drag the week down — you’re dead right I did. I was used to winning, it was a good habit.”
You get the impression Keane would not have suffered the carry-on of the likes of Jack Grealish, Gabby Agbonlahor and Joleon Lescott lightly, and he went on to explain the beauties of international management compared to club.
Aston Villa fans can't quite believe what Joleon Lescott had to say after relegation was confirmed https://t.co/RnHE3pfU5V
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 17, 2016
“At every club, you’re going to have one or two idiots. They’ll be on a two- or three-year contract, you’ll want to get rid of them and they might want to go but there’ll be nobody wanting to touch them.
“The beauty of the national team is that guys like that, you just drop them if they’re not pulling their weight. It’s horses for courses with a lot of guys, sitting down and having a chat mightn’t always work, sometimes you just give the honest truth and decent people, decent players, don’t mind that.”
Even if he was coy about the soon-to-be vacant job, Keane admitted he is keen to get back into club management sooner rather than later.
“I’m not going to be an assistant for the next 20 years, having said that I am enjoying my role.
“You have to learn from your own mistakes. It’s no good me analysing Martin [O’Neill] all the time, obviously I’ve my own personality and hopefully I can get back into that soon.”
Some lucky club can look forward to miserable Mondays, Tuesday and Wednesdays if Keano plays his cards right after Euro 2016.
