DAVID WALSH HAS defended Roy Keane in the wake of his controversial interview with the star.
Speaking to The Sunday Times (print edition), Keane criticised Man United for threatening to sue him for comments he made following his departure from Old Trafford as a player.
He also expressed anger towards Alex Ferguson for the manager’s treatment of him during the star’s final days at the club.
In addition, Keane slammed Wigan during the course of the interview, after they failed to grant him a season ticket to their matches, and subsequently got into an argument with one of the club’s security guards, owing to their failure to let him attend a game.
Speaking on Newstalk’s Off the Ball programme, Keane’s interviewer, David Walsh, denied suggestions that the star’s behaviour was “incredible”.
“I wouldn’t have thought incredible from Roy,” he said. “Roy wants to buy his own ticket – he wanted to buy a ticket like a normal fan.”
He added that Wigan were now “probably looking into their ticket policy” and suggested that Keane chose to attempt to watch the game with the fans, because of his dislike of watching football matches in a corporate environment.
When questioned about whether it was unwise to take such an attitude against “corporate schmoozing,” given his desire to return to football management, Walsh said:
“He’d say I do want to get back in the game – but I don’t want to get back in the game at any cost,” adding that he was the type of person who would be unwilling to talk to clubs while their current manager was still employed.
Walsh also paid tribute to Keane, and claimed he was a lot less hostile in person than his biting comments would suggest:
“The guy has a lot of integrity and we should accept that he’s different.“He was totally relaxed [during the interview] and I didn’t sense any antagonism.”
Keane has been out of work since leaving the Ipswich manager’s role last year, despite being linked with a number of jobs, including the Iceland post, since then.
