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Roy Keane hits back at Sir Alex Ferguson
ROY KEANE last night claimed Sir Alex Ferguson had “forgotten the meaning of the word loyalty” after coming under the fiercest fire in a new autobiography launched yesterday.
Ferguson dismissed his former skipper’s abilities as a manager and claimed “he has the most savage tongue you can imagine”.
The former Manchester United manager later justified his attack in an interview by saying the player had “overstepped the mark” when he criticised team-mates in an MUTV interview.
However Keane then launched a scathing counter-attack from his role as an ITV pundit on the channel’s Champions League coverage last night.
“I do remember having conversations with him about loyalty, but I don’t think he knows the meaning of the word,” said Keane.
“It seems quite strange to constantly criticise players that helped bring him a lot of success. Those players have been top servants to Manchester United.
“He won a lot of trophies with those players – imagine what he’d be like if he’d never won anything!
“But I won’t be losing any sleep about it. It all seems to be part of modern life that people like to do books and criticise.”
Ferguson summed up Keane’s managerial stints at Sunderland and Ipswich by saying: “His two spells in management proved one thing: he needs money.”
But it was while discussing Keane’s ill-fated attack on team-mates in November 2005, including Darren Fletcher, Alan Smith and Edwin van der Sar, that Ferguson was most scathing.
“What I noticed when I was arguing with him was that his eyes started to narrow, almost to wee black beads,” he said.
“It was frightening to watch. And I’m from Glasgow. After the original confrontation I was finished with him. It was clear to me I had to stem the crisis.
“I think Roy realised he was coming to the end of his playing career and was assuming managerial responsibilities. But, of course, it’s not managerial responsibility to slaughter your team-mates.
“Roy Keane’s behaviour pattern changed when he realised he was no longer the Roy Keane of old.”