There are often moments in modern football which would make you wonder, “how would Roy Keane react to that?”
Like, for example, last season, following Arsenal’s 3-0 defeat away to Crystal Palace, when Theo Walcott said that he could “sense” before kick-off that Palace “wanted it more.” Jamie Carragher was appalled by the comments on Monday Night Football, and one can only imagine how Keane would have reacted to hearing his teammate claim during a television interview that he knew the opposition “wanted it more.”
Well, it’s just as well Keane is longer at United, if we’re to believe a report about behind the scenes at Old Trafford. According to Chris Wheeler, writing in the Daily Mail, the senior players at the club are “exasperated” by how pampered some of their teammates, and members of the youth tean, are at United.
The report claims that, the day after United’s 3-1 victory over Arsenal at the start of December, the first-team were due to have a warm down session at the training ground. However, Paul Pogba reportedly didn’t respond to calls from anyone at the club, so United sent staff over to his house, and found the French midfielder asleep.
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The report claims that United go to extreme lengths to keep their players happy. There is a “care team”, which includes property managers and officers to facilitate dope tests. According to Wheeler, a member of the team was even sent to buy toothpaste for a player.
The practice of pampering players has reportedly irked senior members of the squad, such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Michael Carrick and Ashley Young, who have become “exasperated by the behaviour of their team-mates and other young players from the academy.”
The report reads:
“Some of them look as if they’re taking the mickey the way they’re ordering things,’ said a source. ‘It makes you wonder what would happen if they ever ended up at Rochdale or Bury. They would be stuck in a room wondering what to do.”
