Rio Ferdinand is a bona fide Manchester United legend who played in a legendary team under the most legendary of managers Sir Alex Ferguson.
Ferdinand is a former captain of the club who was there for some of the club’s greatest successes.
However, the man who is most synonymous as being the captain for MUFC is Roy Keane.
Before his infamous fallout with Sir Alex, Keane was the quintessential leader on the pitch.
Seen as Sir Alex’s general, Keane was the man who implemented the manager’s high standards on the pitch – leading to the greatest success in the club’s history.
However, it all fell apart when Keane criticised the players after a defeat to Middlesbrough in the English Premier League.
Now, Rio Ferdinand has taken to his YouTube channel to explain what went down in the incident what ended Roy Keane’s career at Old Trafford.
“We play a game on a Saturday, a player gets nominated on MUTV to do analysis of that game.
“We get beat by Middlesbrough, everyone plays rubbish.
“Roy Keane does the video analysis and destroys the whole team, including me. He goes through people individually, hammers them.
‘The manager, before it goes out, gets wind of it, cancels it going out, says it ain’t going out anywhere, that is a disgrace, it can’t happen.
“Calls a meeting at the training ground, we all go into the manager’s office, watch it and the manager goes off.
“It’s a movie in itself, everyone’s cringing.
“The manager’s going ‘how dare you, I’m the only one who should speak about our players publicly’.
“Roy has a go back, it kicks off between the coach and Roy again, some mad stuff said.
“The next day we go into training, the manager calls a meeting as we go on the training pitch and says ‘just so you know, Roy Keane will never play for this football club again’.
“Shiver me timbers.
“Do not **** with this guy, do not mess with Sir Alex. This guy is the truth.
“This guy is the coldest dude about.
“This is our captain, this is a legend of the football club, a phenomenal player, a great guy to have around the place when the chips are down.you know you can look to your right and go ‘Roy, where do we go now?’.
‘The manager says ‘not on my watch, this ain’t happening. My man is done, he’s done. He’s doing that, he will never wear this kit again’. Looking around and all of a sudden he goes, ‘let’s go and train’.
“I know some man’s legs were flaky after that on the way over, like spaghetti on the way to the training pitch, because Sir Alex Ferguson’s cold, you’ve got to be cold in those situations.”
Ferdinand’s insight shows you just how quickly things can change in football and just how seriously Sir Alex Ferguson took his role as being the one in charge at the club.
