Roy Keane has taken aim at Republic of Ireland assistant manager Keith Andrews, stating that the former WBA and Blackburn midfielder is a “bullsh*tter”.
Keane departed his role with the national team in November 2018, having enjoyed some success as the right-hand man to Martin O’Neill in the dugout, notably helping them to Euro 2016, where they qualified for the knockout phases.
The Boys in Green face an uphill task to qualify for the postponed European Championships, which will take place next summer, with a trip to Slovakia in the play-offs before a final away against Bosnia and Herzegovina or Northern Ireland, and Keane has taken aim at a certain member of their coaching staff.
“If I can make one point about new Irish staff. I’ve heard a lot of bullsh*tters over the last 10 years and Keith Andrews is up there with the best of them,” he told the Irish Independent .
Keane, who hit the headlines earlier this week for his scathing assessment of David de Gea’s goalkeeping in Manchester United’s 1-1 draw with Tottenham , struggled in management and he claims it was because he was “too nice”.
“Sometimes I was too hard. Sometimes I was too soft,” he commented. “If I was critical, looking back on my own career and how I dealt with people, even in management – and people mightn’t believe this – but I reckon that sometimes I was too nice to people.
“People stabbed me right in my chest, it wasn’t in my back. Because I was too nice to them.”
On the park, though, Keane was known as a hard man who took no prisoners during his time with Nottingham Forest, Manchester United and Celtic, and he has no problems with that.
“That was who I was. Even pre-season, any game I ever took it easy in, I guarantee you I was the worst player on the park. I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t do it. It just wasn’t in my make-up ... I had to be full pelt,” he said.
“If I lightened up too much in football, I would never have got to England. And if I did, I wouldn’t have lasted two minutes.”
