Roy Keane would have been called an awful lot worse in his time than “the manager on the football pitch.”
But that’s exactly how Paul Scholes referred to his former captain in an interview on Off the Ball tonight.
Scholes knows Keano better than most after the pair looked after the middle of the park for Manchester United for 12 years and the former England midfielder revealed that the players knew the value of Keane’s occasional tongue-lashing.
“He was the manager on the football pitch,” Scholes said. “If you did something wrong you knew about it.
“He tried to get the best out of everyone to get a result for his team. If you are in for a bollocking then so be it, that’s the way you have to take it.”
And when asked whether his former teammate ever came in for some backtalk from the players, Scholes responded with a resounding “no!”
“He handed them out and we took them,” he laughed.
While he and Keane appeared each other inside out on the pitch, Scholes revealed that the pair never needed to talk much.
“It was very natural, not much communication on or off the pitch, there was never any need to be. Everyone who played with Roy knew how good he was, he was somebody you could rely on.”
When asked what led him to his current role as a pundit on BT Sport, Scholes had the perfect explanation for his decision.
“I didn’t have a job basically,” he said. “It’s not something I thought I would do. I have been doing it for the best part of a season now. Will it be something I carry on doing? I’m not too sure. It’s okay.
“Do I enjoy it as much as playing football? No I don’t, but then again I won’t enjoy anything as much as playing football.”
