Roy Keane rips into 'scumbags' at Aston Villa during time as coach in 2014
- Joe Hewlett
- 26 February 2022
Roy Keane didn't hold back on his time at Aston Villa, slating the professionalism of the players at the club in 2014.
Roy Keane has given a ruthless assessment of his time as Paul Lambert's assistant manager at Aston Villa.
The ex-Manchester United player joined the Midlands side in July 2014, combining his other role as Martin O'Neill's number two.
However, in November Keane quit his role to focus on his responsibilities with Ireland and during a live edition of the Overlap, alongside Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher, he opened up on his time at the club.
His outburst came during a conversation about the friendly on-field banter exchanged by players on the pitch in today's game.
"If I came up against an Irish lad, I had no interest in speaking to them," said Keane. "Sometimes, I wasn't even speaking to my own team-mates!
"That's the way it was. It's not old school, it's good school. I see City and United lads chatting after the game. I just don't think it's right."
"We had a brilliant dressing-room at Manchester United, and you assume it's the same everywhere - it's not," stated Keane.
"It's only when you go to another club and see so-called professional footballers, "imposters" I call them.
"I went to coach at Aston Villa (in 2014). Honestly, there were players at the club like scumbags. They would have been scumbags on a building site.
"They didn't train properly. They didn't speak to staff properly. Then you wonder why they don't win anything, because they've people like you in the dressing-room!
"The strange this is, you turn up on time and train properly and they think there's something wrong with you. No, you're supposed to train like it's the last training session you'll ever have. They're like, "Nah, not for me". He pauses. 'P**ck!"
One of the players who experienced Keane's coaching style at Villa was former striker Gabby Agbonlahor.
Agbonlahor refused to let Keane 'bully' him
Agbonlahor spoke about his methods in February and warned Sunderland away from hiring him as coach after the Irishman was linked with a return to the Black Cats.
"The problem with Roy Keane was that when he came to Aston Villa, he couldn't understand that we weren't as good as the players he played with," Agbonlahor told talkSPORT Breakfast.
"He couldn't accept that we weren't going to be as good as Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, David Beckham and those players.
"Just his way of coaching, it wasn't the right method for players nowadays, for players when he was at Aston Villa.
"Just the way he spoke to players. There were times when there were quite experienced players, people like Joe Cole, and he didn't speak to them right.
"He spoke to them in a way that was disrespectful. His man management would be zero out of 100. It was that bad.
"There was a time in training when we were doing a shooting drill. Imagine all 22 players doing a shooting drill, you've got to pass it to five players before you get a cross in.
"We hadn't had a shot for 11 or 12 minutes, you are going to be getting cold and frustrated, so the standard wasn't very good.
"The gaffer, Paul Lambert, calls us in and Roy Keane is there as well. Lambert says the standard isn't good enough.
"Me, as captain, I had to come forward and back the players saying we only get one shot every 11 or 12 minutes and we need to do something different.
"Roy Keane comes forward and says 'oh, are you cold? Do you want another warm up?'
"I said, 'I'm not talking to you, Roy. I'm talking to the manager'. He gave me that evil stare and the next day he left. At that time at Aston Villa, he left because of me.
"I was at Villa for so long. I was captain and it was my club, I wasn't going to let anyone come in and try to bully me at my club. Afterwards, even now, I'm happy it happened."
