Keane: Terrible full-backs ‘offend everything I believe in’

Matt Stead

Roy Keane was once so angry with the performances of a team’s full-backs that he said they “offend everything I believe in”.

Keane retired from football in 2006 and has not managed since 2011, but has never stopped being an angry man.

The current Republic of Ireland assistant is still active on the punditry circuit, annoyed that he can no longer glare across a table at Gareth Southgate during an uninteresting international friendly.

But he does of course remain angry, as Alastair Campbell’s latest anecdote proves.

Campbell, a lifelong Burnley fan, says that the 46-year-old attended a Clarets game last season, and was left appalled at the standard of the opposition’s full-backs.

“He lives not far from Burnley, and he came to a game last season,” Campbell told JOE’s new podcast, ‘Unfiltered with James O’Brien’.

“I had a cup of tea with him at half-time. It wasn’t that great of a game, I think we were winning one-nil. And Roy Keane starts talking about the full-backs on the other team with a passion and a vehemence that is just beyond belief. ‘They’re f****** disgraces, they shouldn’t be… he should take them off! Take them off!’

“So, I said, ‘why do you care?’ He said, ‘it just offends me, it offends everything I believe in’.”