A former Sunderland star has revealed that one controversial player ‘threatened’ Roy Keane with a knife during his time at the Premier League side.
Keane, 54, managed the Black Cats between 2006 and 2008, with his tenure coinciding with the Wearside club winning promotion to the Premier League in the 2006/07 season.
The Irishman was and remains a revered figure at the Stadium of Light, almost 20 years on from his December 2008 departure, and has often spoken warmly about the side’s passionate supporters.
During his time at Sunderland, Keane used his connections at Manchester United to build a competitive squad blending experienced veterans such as Dwight Yorke with younger talent, including a then-19-year-old Jonny Evans, who would later go on to make 386 Premier League appearances before hanging up his boots just last summer.
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However, not everyone thrived under Keane.
And one now-retired player was particularly difficult to deal with during his playing days.
The name El Hadji Diouf may bring back mixed memories for fans of his former clubs. The Senegalese burst onto the scene at the 2002 World Cup, during which he helped his nation reach the quarter-finals, beating then-world champions France in the group stage.
His impressive performances secured him a move to Liverpool that summer, but it’s fair to say his spell at Anfield did not go as planned, with former Reds captain Steven Gerrard supposedly taking a dislike to the winger.
Diouf, now 44, went on to play for Bolton between 2005 and 2008 before being signed by then-Sunderland manager Keane.
His time in the Northeast was unsuccessful and spanned just 16 appearances before the winger signed for Blackburn Rovers.
But he still made an impression at Sunderland for the wrong reasons, with former teammate Martyn Waghorn recently claiming that Diouf approached Keane with a breadknife after a disagreement between the pair following a training session.
Speaking on the Undr the Cosh podcast, Waghorn asked co-host Chris Brown, also once of Sunderland, if he was there when “Dioufy pulled the knife out in the kitchen,” to which the podcaster replied: “I was there with Dioufy…”
Waghorn, who also represented clubs such as Derby County and Ipswich Town, continued explaining how Diouf walked “out of the room with a bread knife”, provoking a typical response from Keane.
“So, obviously, you had the dressing room, you had the warm-up area, and then the kitchen to the right, didn't you?” he said.
“And I think the gaffer might have dragged him or had a go at him or something. And he walks out of the room with, like, a bread knife, and the gaffer goes, ‘Put that away, Dioufy, I don't know who you think you are’, and just, like, turns around like nothing's happened. Yeah, mental.”
SPORTbible has contacted El Hadji Diouf for comment
Topics: Sunderland, Roy Keane, Premier League, Football
Luke Davies