You’re a brave man, Clinton.
Roy Keane’s arguably best remembered for his intensity on the pitch, his never-say-die-attitude, tough tackling style that sometimes crossed the line. A midfield general that drove Manchester United during their most successful period and the most feared player in the Premier League.
As such, Keane’s excellent passing ability is often overlooked. The current Republic of Ireland assistant manager was singled out by Wayne Rooney as the best passer he played alongside at United – which is no mean feat considering Rooney played with Paul Scholes.
Keane wouldn’t play Hollywood balls, and tended instead to play short, fizzing, forward passes into players’ feet. He wasn’t one for conservative sideways passes for the sake of it either, but rarely gave the ball away.
So, you can imagine his reaction when he was told by Clinton Morrison that he’d made an error.
Morrison has been speaking about his time playing alongside Keane for the Republic of Ireland, and a game against the Faroe Islands in a World Cup qualifier in 2005.
“Everyone’s scared of him, everyone’s scared of Roy, aren’t they?” Morrison told RTE show Know The Score.
“We were playing a game away from home, and he’s give a bad ball… He’s moaned at me, and I said ‘No, it’s your fault.’ And he’s looked at me straight away and he’d gone – when his eyes went I knew I was in trouble.
“The half-time whistle was coming and I looked over to Kevin Kilbane and I said: ‘Kev, I’m going to need some help in there because I think he’s going to come for me at half-time’.”
Morrison thought he was in for a dressing down from Keane, but the then-United captain surprised him with his reaction.
“We’d gone in at half-time and I’m sitting there thinking ‘oh here we go’ and he goes: ‘No, Clint, you were right, c’mon, let’s get the second half won’.”
Ireland went on to win the game 2-0.
The former Crystal Palace and Birmingham City striker also said that he found Keane to be good company, and would often sit next to him on the team bus and at meals.
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