Rio Ferdinand completely disagrees with Roy Keane’s ‘crazy’ comments

"Saying that is crazy."

Former Manchester United captain Rio Ferdinand has publicly disagreed with comments that Roy Keane made on Sky Sports, labelling them as "crazy." The Irishman was working on Sky as a pundit covering the Manchester Derby on Sunday where Man City thrashed their neighbours in a comfortable 3-0 win. After the game, Keane claimed that Bruno Fernandes should be stripped of his captaincy due to his behaviour on the pitch. ‘The first thing I’d do is change the captain. Bruno Fernandes is not captain material. He’s moaning all the time. He’s the complete opposite to what a captain should be for me." This has been a consensus shared by many, particularly after last year's 7-0 defeat to Liverpool where it looked like the Portugal international was trying to either get himself sent off, or be substituted. However, Ferdinand, a former teammate of Keane, believes that this would be a "crazy" thing to do.

Speaking on the FIVE podcast, the United legend said: ‘Who else is there? If there was somebody jumping off the page that you go, “Okay yeah he should actually go and get it,” I would say, “Okay you can consider that,’ but throwing out comments like that…

"Saying that is crazy. Because one of Erik ten Hag’s biggest problems has been the amount of sagas there’s been outside of the pitch.

"We’ve had the [Mason] Greenwood situation, you’ve had [Jadon] Sancho, you’ve had Antony, now you want to create another one by taking the captaincy? Look at how that affected the team when Maguire went out of the team and he took the armband off him.

"These are big decisions. The armband at a football club is a massive decision that makes news for all the wrong reasons and you want to bring another saga to the table? I don’t think it’s the right call at all

"The lens on the club at the moment is so magnified, it’s so laser-focused on the football club for the wrong reasons. Why bring another saga to the table? I don’t think it helps the situation right now."

Related links:

• Roy Keane calls on Man United to strip captaincy from Bruno Fernandes
• Killian Phillips rounded on by UK media, and fans, after Remembrance Day stance
• Full-time reaction of Roy Keane to Manchester Derby was uncomfortably jarring