“The only one I remember was after a game.”
Denis Irwin made his long-awaited debut on Sky Sports’ The Overlap, with the former Manchester United and Ireland fullback appearing on their Stick to Football podcast.
Sky’s Roy Keane has made his fondness for his fellow Cork man, and former teammate, well-known throughout the years.
The two togged out together for Alex Ferguson’s dominant Man United side, from Roy Keane’s signing in 1993 to Irwin leaving in 2002, with the pair becoming close friends and roommates.
In the episode, Keane told the story of what he says was their only fight in all their years of playing together.
When asked by former Man United fullback, Gary Neville, about fallouts with Keane, Irwin responded:
“I’m sure we would have done. Probably over flicking over TV or something like that.
However, Keane reminded him of their one-and-only fight:
“The only one I remember was after a game. Something happened, you had a few words with me. Was it Juventus?
“Every now and again we’d stay in a hotel the night after the game. It was the only one we went back to the room and it was a bit frosty.
“We kinda went after each other. That was the only just in 12 years, which wasn’t bad.”
The Saipan incident – when Keane was sent home from the 2002 World Cup after a spat with manager Mick McCarthy – was also touched upon, with Irwin giving his perspective.
He said: “I was doing media work for RTÉ Ireland well before I left United,” recalled Irwin before he turned to Keane and said: “You made my job harder in 2002 at the World Cup, didn’t make it easy for me.”
“Having played with Ireland, you knew what an amateur association they were,” he said. “I don’t know the ins and outs of it because I’ve not really spoken to you (Keane) about that.
“I can understand the balls not being there, the pitch being fairly ropey, I can fully understand that.
“It was an amateur association in the 1990s and it still was 10 years later. You got out there and it should have been the right training ground and all that.
“It split the country.”
In typical Keane fashion, he replied: “I don’t care.”
