The Newcastle legend and former Manchester United captain still don’t see eye to eye
Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane and ex-Chelsea defender Marcel Desailly(Image: The Overlap/YouTube)
Manchester United great Roy Keane has doubled down on his assertion that Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer was ‘nasty’ and ‘sneaky’ during his playing career.
The pair never saw eye to eye at the height of Newcastle and Manchester United’s rivalry, and Keane was infamously sent off for throwing a ball off Shearer and throwing a punch at the former England captain during Newcastle’s 4-3 win over the Red Devils at St James’ Park in 2001.
Despite 19 years passing since both players retiring from the game, Keane reignited their feud last month by making allegations about Shearer’s playing style.
Keane said: “Shearer was sneaky. Sneaky elbows. I didn’t admire people who were nasty. He was nasty, sneaky elbows, back of the head. Cantona, [Andy] Cole. All these strikers I played with weren’t sneaky. They were good honest pros, turned up every week and they weren’t sneaky.”
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Shearer hit back on his own The Rest is Football podcast, hinting at some of Keane’s misdemeanours during his career as he said: “I mean really? Come on. I mean, sneaky and nasty, some of the tackles? Come on, really? Yeah, okay.”
And the feud was brought back into the spotlight during a recent Overlap podcast episode Keane appeared on alongside former Chelsea and France defender Marcel Desailly.
When Desailly discussed adapting to the physicality of the Premier League, he joked he still had scars on his face from facing Shearer.
“When I came in the first months, it was quite difficult,” Desailly told the Overlap.
“Every weekend you had to play against Duncan Ferguson, Niall Quinn, Dion Dublin, Shearer. Oh, Shearer, I still have some scars [does an elbow in the face action].”
The rest of the panel laughed after Keane’s previous comments on Shearer before the former Manchester United captain said to Desailly: “[He was] Sneaky.”
Roy Keane took a swipe at Alan Shearer in 2001(Image: Getty Images)
Desailly added: “My first game was at Coventry and I had to mark Dion Dublin. I didn’t know his name, I had just arrived after winning the World Cup and I was like I don’t mind, I will take him on corners.”
“The first corner, boom, he scored a goal. I remember I fell on the floor and I looked at all my team-mates looking at me like: ‘Oh, World Cup winner’.
“I got depressed for like three months because I could not understand that even a small striker could flick the ball in front of me, I couldn’t get the ball, and it was really a difficult moment for me.”
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