{"id":427770,"date":"2026-05-01T23:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/427770\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T23:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:29:10","slug":"ex-united-coach-bruno-shares-nightmare-trait-with-roy-keane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/427770\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-United Coach: Bruno Shares “Nightmare” Trait With Roy Keane"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s no secret that Roy Keane has not always been Bruno Fernandes’ biggest fan.<\/p>\n

Fernandes has been the rare shining light for Manchester United through so much of their wretched form in recent years, with the Portuguese a strong favourite for Player of the Season this year as the club appears set for a return to the Champions League.<\/p>\n

\n Recommended\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Keane, like Fernandes, famously captained United for the best part of a decade under Alex Ferguson, winning four of his seven total Premier League crowns as skipper.<\/p>\n

However, Keane caused a stir last year when he said that he believed Fernandes’ brilliance on the pitch was “not enough” to supersede his shortcomings as captain of the team.<\/p>\n

It was not the first time Keane had made such remarks, as he also questioned Fernandes’ attitude<\/a> back in 2023.<\/p>\n

One man who coached both men at United, though, believes the pair have more in common than Keano might like to admit.<\/p>\n

READ HERE: England Reportedly Hoping To Steal Young Forward From Under Ireland’s Nose<\/a><\/p>\n

READ HERE: Keith Andrews Recalls Ireland Task That Saw Him Develop Brentford Ambition<\/a><\/p>\n

Manchester United: Bruno v Keano<\/p>\n

Bruno Fernandes is undeniably a gifted footballer, but he has faced repeated criticism due to his ill-discipline and occasional petulance since joining Manchester United in 2020.<\/p>\n

Steve McClaren was United assistant coach during Erik ten Hag’s tenure, a role he had previously filled under Alex Ferguson in the late 1990s and early 2000s.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Laurie Whitwell of\u00a0The Athletic this week, McLaren admitted that he sees a lot of Roy Keane in that specific trait.<\/p>\n

We had one spell when we said to Roy, \u2018You\u2019ve got to calm down a bit\u2019. Because it was beginning to be a problem. Through the trouble he got into, he used to miss five or six games a season.<\/p>\n

He tried to calm down, and he was rubbish. So we said, \u2018Forget that, be yourself, it\u2019s all right, we\u2019ll miss you for five games, don\u2019t want you to be a pussycat on the field\u2019.<\/p>\n

And Bruno is the same. When I used to have to be the referee in training, he\u2019s a nightmare. It\u2019s just passion. He\u2019s fit, he runs around, he scores, he assists, his numbers are phenomenal.<\/p>\n

We’re not sure how Roy Keane would respond to hearing his character be compared to that of Bruno Fernandes, but many younger United fans would see it as a compliment.<\/p>\n

One noticeable evolution in Fernandes’ game this year has been his more measured presence on the pitch. Though still one of the Premier League’s most vocal players, he has perhaps dialled back some of the hostility which made him such an understandable target for referees in previous seasons.<\/p>\n

Fernandes is undoubtedly one of Manchester United’s greatest players of the past 20 years, but one feels he will need to add at least one major honour before leaving the club if he is to even approach the level of the likes of Roy Keane.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: Historic Shamrock Rovers Win Could Have Unlikely Ripple Effect On Jose Mourinho<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s no secret that Roy Keane has not always been Bruno Fernandes’ biggest fan. Fernandes has been the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,271,112],"class_list":["post-427770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-roy-keane","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}