ROY’S NOT KEANE ON LENNON HOUSE
Footballer tackled by Man Utd legend over property size
CELTIC star Neil Lennon recalled being teased by Roy Keane over the size of his house during one of their fiery battles on the pitch.
He was among some of the Irish players telling of their encounters with the former Manchester United skipper in a BBC documentary.
In Pitch Invasion: How the Scottish and Irish Changed Football, Lennon recalled their on-field conversation occurred after he signed for Leicester City as a young player.
He said: “They did this feature in the programme every week, Through The Keyhole.
“So they send this photographer to take pictures of your house.
“I had nothing in mine. I had a sofa bed, I had just sort of moved in three or four weeks.
“We were playing United and me and
Roy went for a 50/50 after about 20 odd minutes. The two of us are pulling at each other as we’re getting up. He says, ‘Oi, I just seen your house in that programme’.
“I say, ‘Oh do you like it?’ and he said ‘My ***** double garage is bigger’.”
Broadcaster George Hamilton described Keane as “Alex Ferguson on the pitch” while ex-arsenal and Man City striker Niall Quinn said he was “box office”.
Quinn added: “I played with Roy, played against Roy and you knew when you were playing against him he was going to be the most important player on the pitch.
“This is when they had [Andrei] Kanchelskis, they had [Eric] Cantona. They had great players.
“You would hope that [Keane] might go mad and get sent off, if you were playing against him. If you could get him wound up, he might get sent off. That’d be like getting two goals, he was that good.”
Ex-ireland boss Martin O’neill pointed to his former assistant manager’s sheer presence on the football pitch.
He said: “His personality for a start is very strong-willed, cajoling, rollicking, encouraging players along the way.
“They expected that from him. If Roy Keane stayed quiet for a whole game they would have thought he must be ill, so it wasn’t going to happen.”
Manchester United player Jonny Evans said he was inspired by Keane’s mindset after reading his book before leaving
Belfast for Manchester.
He added: “Even now to this day, I still sort of think, ‘What would Roy Keane do?’ on the pitch.”
The series examines the careers of homegrown superstars from the legends of the 1960s and 70s such sa Johnny Giles to the heroes of the Premier League like Keane.
Quinn said he felt pressure not to play soccer growing up in Ireland.
He added: “It was frowned upon that you’d even talk about soccer. I spoke to John Giles about it.
“He was taken apart in the school when he’d play a soccer match and Liam Brady was expelled for playing for the Irish youth team, and not a friendly GAA match for the school.”
But Quinn, who went on to become chairman of Sunderland football club, told the programme how his GAA background gave him an edge in soccer.
Pitch Invasion: How the Scottish and Irish Changed Football on BBC One, NI tonight at 10.40pm.
I had a sofa. I had just moved in three or four weeks NEIL LENNON ON HIS SPARSE HOME SET-UP