ROY KEANE once took aim at Arsenal legend Ian Wright for turning up TWO MINUTES late to lunch – then implied he was not Manchester United material.
Irishman Keane launched his tirade in 2018 when the two cult heroes were working together as pundits at the World Cup in Russia.
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Wright told BBC’s Match of the Day: Top 10 podcast: “Honestly, I’ve got so much admiration for Roy Keane. I have to say, we were at the World Cup together [as pundits] and I was thinking, ‘oh my gosh, we’re really cool mates, it’s fine’.
“And I remember there was this one time I asked Roy if he wanted to go to lunch, because we had breakfast then we’d go for lunch.
“He said, ‘okay, Wrighty. See you at 1.15’. I said, ‘No problem, I’ve just got to go and do some stuff’.
“So I had to go and do that, I got there at 1.17, I was waiting in the lobby, I phoned and said, ‘Roy, okay, I’m here’. And he said, ‘Wrighty, 1.15 is 1.15, I’m not coming’.
“I laughed because I thought he was only messing about but he said, ‘Wrighty, I’m not coming’. And he hung up the phone. And I never saw him until the evening.”
Keane showed his unforgiving and disciplined nature catching Wright off guard and teaching him a harsh timekeeping lesson.
However, the incident has not seemed to impact the pair’s relationship as they continue to appear together on ITV despite Keane’s suggestion Wright would not have made the cut at United.
Wright added: “And as soon as I saw him he done one of those cheeky smiles he’s got and he said, ‘this is why Man United were so successful, we done what had to be done on time, we done what we needed to do’.
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“And that’s what made me think with Roy Keane is that to be under him, under his stewardship as a captain, he would take nothing in respect of failure.
“What I like about Roy Keane, and anybody that knows him or spends any time with him, obviously he doesn’t suffer any fools, but I’ve never seen anybody who loves football and speaks about football as much as he does.
“He’ll tell you about a player in League Two, a left-back somewhere, he loves it.
“The fact is, when he’s off-camera he’s just a very serious man, he’s a serious bloke, he doesn’t deal with foolishness.
“I cannot stop laughing when I’m in his presence, the way he shuts people down and shuts things off, it just makes me laugh all the time, I just love being around him.”
Wright pulled no punches in his praise of Keane’s leadership and said: “For me, he was the best captain in the Premier League.
“What he ushered in with the Class of ’92, with the great players around him, the consistency of his performances without compromising exactly what he was about in respect of the way he sees the game and his principles and his morals.”
Keane collected 12 major trophies during an illustrious spell at Old Trafford and his no-nonsense attitude undoubtedly helped propel the sides he played in to great success.
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