Roy Keane didn't hold back after being asked whether he'd ever 'forgive' and make up with Sir Alex Ferguson
Sir Alex Ferguson appeared to extend an olive branch to Roy Keane in his recent memoir, but whether the former Manchester United captain would bury the hatchet is another question.
Last month, Ferguson used his new book, Games of My Life, to describe Keane's performance against Juventus in 1999 as one that "deserves to be passed down through the generations."
Keane, who made 480 appearances for United between 1993 and 2005, has spoken openly about his long-standing feud with Ferguson.
Towards the end of his time at Old Trafford, Keane was accused of betraying his teammates after delivering an infamous MUTV rant following United's 4-1 defeat to Middlesbrough in 2005.
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Roy Keane on whether he would forgive Sir Alex Ferguson
Since that incident in 2005, Ferguson and Keane have barely spoken to each other.
In fact, the latter gave a telling response when asked whether he would forgive Ferguson for the manner of his exit from United, as well as the negative comments he made in his book.
Speaking at the launch of his autobiography in 2014, Keane replied: "Football is a small world and eventually you will cross paths with people again."
He continued: "Whether it is at a game or at a conference that is going on, we will meet again. When you have worked with someone for such a long time and we've had our disagreements, I have no problem about that.
"It is afterwards when people start coming out with all sorts of nonsense, and for Alex Ferguson to criticise not just myself but players who brought a lot of pleasure to a lot of supporters - it was just ridiculous.
"He has made millions of pounds out of it, he has a stand named after him, he has his statue. Why do it?
"There are people in this room who are quite happy to tell lies about me and at some stage you have to defend yourself. Enough is enough."
When pressed on whether he would meet up with Ferguson, Keane replied: “Will I ever forgive him? I don’t know. We’ll see if we ever cross paths again. I’m sure we will... cross paths, I mean.”
The story behind the feud between Roy Keane and Sir Alex Ferguson
In that infamous MUTV segment, Keane described Kieran Richardson as "lazy" and questioned why people in Scotland "rave" about Darren Fletcher.
Then, after calling out Edwin van der Sar, Keane made a scathing comment about Rio Ferdinand. According to reports, Keane said: "Just because you're paid £120,000-a-week and play well for 20 minutes against Tottenham, you think you're a superstar."
United decided against broadcasting Keane's outburst and Ferguson, who rarely criticised his players in public, was furious, according to Wayne Rooney, who claims the Scot jumped over a desk to confront Keane.
"I can't say the details of what happened in the meeting," Rooney said on the 'Tony Bellew is Angry' podcast. "Roy had obviously had a go at some of the players on the club's TV channel and then Fergie wasn’t happy, so he called a meeting.
"Roy Keane said 'let’s all watch it together', so we all went into Alex Ferguson’s office - the coaches, Alex and the whole squad. I was 18 or 19 at the time. We've all watched, and Roy asked if any of the players had a problem, so everyone said no. To be fair, it wasn't that bad; I think it was obviously a problem with Roy and the manager in the past.
"So, anyway, it's got into an argument, and a few different things got said, and I see Alex Ferguson jump over his desk, and I’m thinking 'wow, this is crazy'. He jumped over the desk! He's getting held back... it got calmed down.
"Anyway the next day Roy Keane’s come into training, and then about 30 minutes later we've seen him driving off, and that’s the last we’ve seen of him."
Topics: Man Utd, Roy Keane, Premier League, Sir Alex Ferguson
Jack Kenmare
