FORMER IRELAND INTERNATIONAL Kevin Kilbane has hit out at Roy Keane for lambasting the Irish players after their 2-1 friendly defeat to Belarus at Turner’s Cross on Tuesday.
Kilbane, who won 110 caps for Ireland and played alongside the former Manchester United player for the national team, believes Keane needs to have a better understanding of his role as the assistant manager.
“Someone not in the know, somebody just switching the radio on, would think they [the press] were talking to the international manager, Roy Keane is the assistant manager,” Kilbane told BBC Radio 5 live as he listened back to Keane’s press conference from Wednesday.
Keane had singled out Everton winger Aiden McGeady for his performance on Tuesday, saying that “he can do better, maybe that’s the story of his career,” but Kilbane believes the former Ireland captain was wrong for publicly criticising McGeady.
“This is the whole point, Roy Keane comes out and he questions the ability of one player within the squad in Aiden McGeady. I’ve never heard a manager come out and be critical of a player before. I’m sure its happened at times, I’ve never heard it. Having played alongside Roy, if any assistant manager that he would have played for would have come out and questioned one of his teammates or him, he would have been the first to go and knock on the manager’s door and the assistant manager’s door and say what are you doing?
“I think Roy is bang out of order with what he said, particularly about Aiden. And again I go back to the point, he is the assistant manager, and I think maybe you’ve got to know your role. Roy is suppose to be the buffer between the players and the manager.
“The only thing that it’s going to do, it’s going to alienate Roy from the players, now I’m sure Roy is not bothered, he doesn’t care but you’ve got to have some sort of harmony going into this tournament because Roy Keane has a vital role to play with as I said that buffer between the manager and the players.
“Martin O’Neill might not necessarily want to be coming out and say the things that Roy has said, but Roy, I think maybe has just got to curb it sometimes and he can’t come out and say the things that he said, particularly about Aiden.”
The Ireland squad will reconvene on Monday with the players having the weekend off before flying to France on Wednesday.
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