“You read my book?”
Former Man United captain and Sunderland manager Roy Keane explained how Johnny Evans managed to double his wages after reading his book.
When Keane retired from playing football and took the step into management, he never thought that either of his two books would come back to bite him in such a manner.
However, the Irishman signed Evans on loan from United when they were still in the Championship, and after a successful first season, Keane wanted to keep him for another year.
Speaking on the latest episode of the Stick to Football podcast, the Sky Sports pundit revealed that Evans used his book against him in order to get more money.
“Jonny Evans was a huge signing for me in the January transfer window at Sunderland. Sir Alex Ferguson did me a bit of a favour with the signing as well.
“Jonny had come to Sunderland the previous year in the 2006/07 season when we were in the Championship, and he had done well so we got him back in the following season in January and we had to give him a £1m loan fee for the second part of the season.
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🔃 January Transfer Window
👀 Rashford’s Night Out
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“Jonny was on £10,000 a week, but the chairman came to me and said Jonny want £20,000 a week, so I rang him up and asked him why he wanted £20,000 and he said that he had read my book. And I was like ‘You read my book?’
“He told me he had and that in the book it said that you’ve got to negotiate hard to get as much money as you can, so we gave him £20,000 a week and he was a brilliant signing for us.”
As they say, you don’t get what you deserve you get what you negotiate, and the Northern Ireland international did his homework on this one.
Related links:
- “We didn’t speak for about 12 month” – Roy Keane on old dressing room rows at United
- Roy Keane sticks up for Marcus Rashford as he calls a spade a spade on Belfast session
- Roy Keane on the Man United player who didn’t like international duty
