It turned out to be a terrible prediction.
There was considerable bad blood between Manchester United and Blackburn when, in 1993, he snubbed Kenny Dalglish at Ewood Park and chose to join Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford.
Keane had made ‘a gentleman’s agreement’ to join Rovers from Nottingham Forest but, convinced by a persistent Ferguson, he changed his mind.
Bitter words were exchanged at the time but both Dalglish and Keane appear to have settled any differences since then. Looking back on 25 years of the Premier League [in its new packaging], Sky Sports had the Scot and Irishman on as special guests.
Dalglish admitted Blackburn had spoken with Keane’s representatives at a hotel in Stoke under the mistaken belief that a fee had been agreed. Frank Clark, who had just taken over as Forest boss, rang him up to angrily tell him that was not the case.
Once United got involved, Keane’s head was turned but Dalglish was not finished. He admitted he told Keane:
“You’ve made a bad move.”
Keane and United would prove the Rovers manager wrong within nine months as they won a league and FA Cup double but there was a measure of revenge the following season when Blackburn pipped Ferguson’s men to the league title on the final day of a thrilling 1994/95 season.
Dalglish was in a slightly more cordial, and reflective, mood on the next time his path crossed the Ireland international.
“Then the next time I saw you, you’d won about three [league championships], a European Cup. I said, ‘I told you you’d made a mistake!’“
In fairness, the former Liverpool player and manager could see why Keane made the move he did. “At that stage,” he said, “given the history of Manchester United, where would you go? Where would you move?”
Keane, for his part, regrets how the move played out but he insists he never hesitated once he heard Ferguson wanted him at United.
