Former Manchester United captain, Roy Keane, has revealed that he was not the super professional many thought he was during his playing career.
Roy Keane enjoyed an incredible career at the heart of the Manchester United midfield, maintaining high standards not only from himself but also his teammates.
The Irishman enjoyed a trophy-laden spell at Old Trafford winning seven Premier League trophies, four FA Cups and a Champions League.
He would represent United 480 times, scoring 51 goals.
However, speaking on Sky Sports’ Stick to Football podcast, he confessed that he was far from the consummate professional.
The Cork native stated, “People used to say I was a good pro. Some of my stuff was absolutely disgraceful.”
Keane explained that his weakness was drinking and that he would cut loose if his side were not playing throughout the week.
He said: “Definitely on Saturday. Definitely on Sunday.
“Many times I’d go Saturday after the game, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Pints or whatever it was I was drinking at the time.”
The Irishman did stress though that “I’d draw the line on Wednesday, to be fair”.
Speaking on the same podcast, his former teammate, Gary Neville, claimed that he got away with it because of how common it was in the early 1990s for players to drink after matches.
Neville stated, “The reason you got away with it was because a lot of the players in the other teams were doing the same”.
“As long as they could all drink 10 pints they were all at the same fitness level”.
Keane agreed with the theory suggesting “probably” that was the case but also claimed his relative youthfulness and the quality of the side he played in, helped him mask his drinking habits.
Neville went on to assert that from 1996 there was a major shift in the culture and professionalism of English football but Keane joked “I carried on for a while – they’re not changing me”.
There is no doubt that professionalism is on another stratosphere in contemporary elite football in comparison to two decades ago. It is scary to think how good Keane would have been if he hadn’t been indulging at the pub in his downtime between games.
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