Ex-Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert has debunked stories talking down Manchester United legend Roy Keane as “absolute b*******s”.
Lambert, who played for Borussia Dortmund and Celtic, roped in Keane as his right-hand man at Villa back in 2014. Despite Keane’s brief four-month stint, they became good friends, leading Lambert to rubbish any stories about Keane’s behind-the-scenes behaviour.
Speaking on the Undr the Cosh podcast, Lambert said: “I’ll tell you Roy’s brilliant, and I think he’s brilliant because he’s a realist of the game and he knows the pitfalls and all that of being a manager. He knows exactly what it’s like to have a dressing room, good or bad, doesn’t matter, a top player in his day.”
READ MORE: Roy Keane gives ‘brutal’ take on why England not good enough to beat Spain at Euro 2024
READ MORE: ‘I played under Roy Keane as a boss – he was never there so we didn’t have a relationship’
Podcast co-host and ex-footballer Chris Brown asked Lambert how Keane was as an assistant, pointing out that most number twos are more positive than the manager and keep things cheery for the players. Brown added: “I can’t imagine Roy being like that.”
Lambert disagreed and claimed that Keane was great to work with, and dismissed any rumours of bad attitudes as utter nonsense. He said: “He was no bother! I hear all the stories that people didn’t like him and all that – maybe some did, maybe some didn’t – I hear some total fabrication of what he was like in the dressing room.
“Absolute b*******s some of it, it really is b*******s. People say things to make themselves look good, Roy was never like that.”
(Image: Chris Brunskill/Getty Images)
Keane is well-known for his fearsome reputation as a hard-tackling midfielder and an intense coach who has admitted to falling out with players at Sunderland, Ipswich, and the Republic of Ireland – and he still maintains his no-nonsense image as a pundit.
Lambert has shed light on a different and softer aspect of Keane’s character, recounting how their friendship blossomed during their time at Villa. “I remember I was, I don’t know if I was maybe the manager of Aston Villa or something and we were losing. I got a text out the blue, ‘Hi Paul, keep it going,’ kind of nice text you know, from Roy,” Lambert shared.
“I texted him back and said thanks very much and then all of a sudden, I don’t know, we made contact with each other and he invited me up. I went up to his house and had a game of snooker with him, beat him at snooker which was great so eh, done him at snooker and we were just having a chat.
What do you think of Roy Keane, during his time as a footballer and also as a TV pundit? Let us know in the comments section.
(Image: Shaun Botterill/Allsport/Getty Images)
“Then all of a sudden I was looking for somebody to come in and give us a hand [at Aston Villa] and I thought, I’m going to ask him, see if he wants to do it and he says ‘aye, I’ll give you a hand’ – brilliant!”
Lambert also confessed his admiration for Keane’s straightforward approach to football, stating: “I never ever viewed Roy as somebody like what he was as a footballer or anything like that because I know he was a great player, I didn’t need that but as a person just to talk football or whatever, absolutely no worries whatsoever.
“Good, good guy, good ethos of what football is and the realism of it. He doesn’t try and sugarcoat it as everybody knows but the realism of it, I can relate to because it’s something similar to my same sort of thinking of you’ll not suffer fools gladly. I thought ‘I like the way you think about football’, it’s about winning and with him, it was always about winning as well.”
The ex-Celtic star also recalled a funny anecdote about how Keane’s competitive nature continued into coaching, which ended up leaving him out of pocket. Lambert said: “He’ll tell you himself, I used to beat him every Friday at crossbar challenge, he used to buy the doughnuts and cakes and everything, every Friday he was skint.
“He was going to every cake shop in Manchester to get me cakes because we always used to have a competition – we still laugh about it now. I just liked his mindset, I never felt anything other than I like the way you think about football and that’s why I asked him to come.”