FORMER NEWCASTLE STAR Alan Shearer joked that he would have knocked out Roy Keane if he’d been given the chance following their infamous spat in 2001.
The English striker was pitted against Keane at St. James’ Park, with the former doing enough to enrage the Irishman to the point of taking a swing at his opponent’s head.
Even after being shown a red card, the Mancherster United midfielder had to be held back as he fully intended on properly connecting with the Toon icon.
Reminiscing on some rough incidents throughout his career during a recent podcast with The True Geordie, Shearer harked back to his own notorious red card when he kicked Neil Lennon in the face back in 1998 before claiming a post-match meeting with Keane ‘would have been interesting’.
“You had to look after yourself, definitely,” Shearer began.
“I always gave as good as I got – I was hard and most of the time I was fair. Neil Lennon deserved it, he was stupid for heading my foot! Nah, I just kicked out, didn’t mean to kick him in the head and I panicked when I saw it.
“I think I did an FA Cup game with Roy [punditry after retirement] – we got on fine, had a laugh and a joke. He’s another one who I had some great battles with. He punched me in the face once, didn’t he? At St. James’ Park.
“He got that red card – it was funny – he walked off the pitch, it was the last minute of the game and he was waiting for me at the top of the tunnel. Of course we tried to get each other and we couldn’t, it was like ‘Hold me back/don’t hold me back’ but we couldn’t get each other.
“It would have been interesting.”
Asked if he’d have knocked out Keane, Shearer replied: “Of course I would have!”
You can watch the interview in full here, and he discusses the spat with Keane from 1:21:30:
- Omni
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