SHUT IT, KEANE!
Former team-mate Yorke hits out at ranting Roy
DWIGHT YORKE insists his former Manchester United team-mate and Sunderland manager Roy Keane should tone down his criticism when analysing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side on television.
Keane’s rant about David de Gea after the goalkeeper’s gaffe against Tottenham two weeks ago was typical of the Irishman, who claimed he would be swinging punches at half-time.
Yet Yorke says Keane should remember he made mistakes as a player, too, and that this tendency to fly off the handle was one of his downfalls as a manager.
‘I know what he’s like,’ said Yorke, who played under Keane at the Stadium of Light. ‘He says what he likes to say. Some people buy into it, some don’t.
‘We all make mistakes. Roy wasn’t perfect when he played. He made mistakes along the way. He has to tone that back a little bit. Maybe one of the downfalls which I recognised from his management career, is that the way he delivered his approach to players could be quite offensive.
‘Brian Clough, Ron Atkinson, maybe even Sir Alex Ferguson sometimes, they give those kind of rollickings. Players of yesterday could easily dust off those kind of comments.
‘Things have changed. It’s the way you go about it which is important and that’s one of Keane’s problems: he doesn’t know how to deliver it.’
Yorke has been left impressed by United’s rise under Solskjaer.
They are in the thick of the chase for a Champions League place and have an upcoming FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea.
‘Ole is going to get judged not only on the attractive football the team is playing now, but also on results and what he has won,’ added Yorke. ‘This is a good opportunity for him.’
The former Trinidad and Tobago forward reserved special praise for Mason Greenwood, going as far as comparing the 18-year-old to Wayne Rooney.
And Yorke believes Greenwood’s progress could force the club to reconsider chasing Borussia Dortmund’s English winger Jadon Sancho.
‘Before his 19th birthday, he’s scored more goals than Marcus Rashford did,’ Yorke said of Greenwood. ‘What I like about him is that he’s got a really cool demeanour about him.
‘Pound for pound, he looks equally impressive in terms of what he has done. He has all the ingredients. I often look at your persona, your mentality as a player.
‘Forget the football side because that speaks for itself. But the way he conducts himself and goes about it, he doesn’t seem to seek the limelight, which is a rare thing for a young player. ‘Often enough nowadays, these players want the fast car, the big cash, they want everything. ‘I like what I’m seeing. Within the camp, from what I hear, Mason is level-headed. ‘With the lockdown as well, he has come back a little bit more buff.’
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