“There’s a lot of cry babies out there” – Roy Keane on his sympathy for José Mourinho

The phones must have been hopping down at the Notts TV studio...

Roy Keane kindly gave up his time, contacts book and energy to help promote, and play in, the Liam Miller Tribute Match but he has kept a relatively low profile since his summer stint for ITV at the World Cup. The former Manchester United captain has been kept busy by his assistant manager duties with Ireland but he has not been at any press conferences nor been available for interviews on the national team. Given that it was confirmed by Martin O'Neill that he had rows with Jon Walters and Harry Arter in the summer, before a friendly game with the USA, that is somewhat understandable. The good folks at Notts TV's Team-talk show were able to coax him back on set, however, and Keane proved a compelling guest. The show covers Nottinghams Forest and County so Keane was only too happy to re-live some of his most memorable moments at the City Ground, when he played under Brian Clough in the early 1990s. He also touched on a number of other topics, such as autobiography regrets (the Eamon Dunphy one) and clashes between players and managers. Keane famously had differences of opinions with Mick McCarthy and, in his latter years at United, Alex Ferguson. The two biggest blow-outs eventually saw him miss out on the 2002 World Cup and leave United to see out his career at Celtic. The conversation began, on Notts TV, about TV cameras capturing the mini training ground spat, at United, between Paul Pogba and José Mourinho. Keane addressed that but later pointed out he was talking generally, and one can ascertain that his recent experiences with Ireland must not have been far from his mind. He said:

"We talk about footballers and managers, not every player is going to get along with their manager and the manager is not going to like every player. But what you do as a footballer, and whatever disagreements I've had with one or two managers, when you cross that line, you play for the team. "I don't care what fall-out you've had with your manager, I don't care if you've been at each others' throats, because that is part of the industry... people do fall out, it happens in other industries. Unfortunately, when you're at Man United, one of the biggest clubs in the world, things will get exaggerated. "But if you're a footballer for Man United and you put that jersey on and walk out and don't give 100% because you might be upset with somebody, then good luck to Mourinho in this job."

https://twitter.com/Notts_TV/status/1047495261315063808 Roy Keane continued, "Players who get upset with the manager or coaching staff and think 'I'm not going to train properly because somebody upset me'... there's a lot of cry-babies out there.

"When you walk out on that pitch, you're playing for your pride, you're playing for your family, your city, whatever it might be. Don't get that worried about what the manager's said about you or the coaching staff. "You can fall out after the match, but when the game's going on... liven up! Play with pride, play with energy, play with spirit and hopefully play with a bit of skill. "You can't always play with the skill, you can have a bad day, but on your bad days you roll your sleeves up and you fight for that jersey and don't get distracted by the balloons out there."

His delivery of 'balloons' at the end of the clip (above) is well worth a watch. The interview comes at a time when Ireland manager Martin O'Neill is set to announce his latest squad for upcoming international fixtures. Arter is not expected to be part of that squad.