Roy Keane has aimed a dig at Sir Alex Ferguson after it was claimed the former Manchester United boss used to pull his players out of international duty towards the end of the season.
Ex-United skipper Keane has not spoken to Ferguson since he was forced out of Old Trafford in 2005 after a bitter fall-out with his former manager, which has shown no signs of ending.
Keane deepened the ill-feeling between himself and Ferguson, after Gary Neville claimed the ex-United boss used to withdraw his players from England friendlies during the title run-in.
Responding to Neville's claim, Keane said he would be “ashamed” to tell players they were not allowed to represent their country, in what amounted to a clear swipe at Ferguson.
“When I was a manager, and obviously players were getting called up, I’d be ashamed of my life to tell a player that he couldn’t go and play for his country,” said Keane.
“You might say it’s a different challenge at Manchester United, but I still think you’re a manager and when a player gets an international call up, you should be happy for them because it’s a dream.
“We’re talking about the countries we're involved in, but you see [Cristiano] Ronaldo and all these boys, and they play every international.
“They literally turn up and they play. And that’s why, what’s Ronaldo got, 150 or 160 caps? And these guys are under pressure week on week because they’re goal scorers.”
Keane was responding to Neville's claim that Ferguson used to pull his England players out of friendlies towards the end of the season to preserve them for United's push for trophies.
“I always think about the March international break, because this is where Sir Alex Ferguson would pull players out of playing for their country,” said Neville.
“I said it a couple weeks ago that it would be interesting to see how many Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool players would play in this break – you’ve already got ‘injuries’ for Erling Haaland, Kevin de Bruyne is out, Gabriel has been withdrawn, so it’s happening already.
“In the 1998/99 season, when we were going for the Treble, in the March international break, Sir Alex Ferguson pulled David Beckham, Paul Scholes and myself out the England squad, and let Nicky Butt, Wes Brown and Phil Neville play for England, so it was like three in and three out. Sir Alex hated the March international break.
“There were seven of us playing for Manchester United and England and, if it was a proper qualifier, the boss wouldn’t have any issues with us playing, but if it was a friendly in the March break, he wasn’t having it.
“It’s a badly placed international break, during a title run-in. Push it into early December or August, but I don’t think it should split the season.
“Sir Alex would have done a deal with the England manager to make them not play in March if we had silverware to go for. He would have said that we could play in the summer or in the off-season, but not when we’re going for a Treble like we were in 1999.”
Roy Keane and Gary Neville were speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet
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