Roy Keane's former teammate opens up on 'confusing' incident which cost ex-Man Utd captain £12,000
Lee Sharpe has revealed how his former Manchester United teammate Roy Keane's confusion led to the Irishman paying a whopping £12,000 for an item he thought he was getting for a price 10 times less.
Keane is amongst the greatest players in United's history and was captain during one of the most successful periods for the Old Trafford club.
After joining United in 1993 from Nottingham Forest for a then-British record transfer fee of £3.75m, Keane won seven Premier League titles, four FA Cups, the Champions League and the Intercontinental Cup.
Keane also scored 51 goals in 480 appearances across all competitions from central midfield, before leaving United by mutual consent in November 2005.
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His departure followed a falling out with Sir Alex Ferguson and an infamous interview he conducted with MUTV which was not broadcast after Keane was critical of several of his United team-mates following a 4-1 loss to Middlesbrough.
Keane retired in 2006 after ending his playing career with Celtic, and following coaching spells in charge of Sunderland and Ipswich Town, plus assistant manager roles with the Republic of Ireland and Aston Villa to Martin O'Neill, the 53-year-old has become well known for his punditry.
Sharpe was a team-mate of Keane's for a time at United, having originally joined the Old Trafford club in 1988 from Torquay United.
Sharpe won three Premier League titles, two FA Cups, the League Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup with United before leaving in 1996.
He had spells at Leeds United, Sampdoria, Bradford City, Portsmouth, Exeter City, Grindavik and Garforth Town before retiring in 2004.
Sharpe has recalled the time not long after Keane's arrival at United in 1993 when he ended up spending 10 times more than he originally envisioned after confusion when it came to buying a Rolex watch.
After being taken to a jewellers ran by one of Sharpe's friends, Keane thought he was paying £1,200 for the watch he had selected from a choice of 10 presented to him.
But after choosing the watch he wanted and paying for it on his credit card, Keane was told by Sharpe he had paid 10 times more - £12,000 - for the gold Rolex Dayton.
Keane appealed to Sharpe to not tell the United dressing room he had spent £12,000 on a watch for fears it might make him look flashy just after getting to the club - only for his team-mates to find out and place picture of watches and clocks around the training ground and continually ask him what time it was.
Speaking to Razed, Sharpe said: "Roy got a bit confused about the prices and the numbers. So I took him to my mates’ jewellers, and he wanted a Rolex watch. So my mate put 10 Rolex’s out, Roy looked at them all, and then he decides he's going to pick this gold Dayton, so Roy says, ‘yeah, I’ll have that so here’s my credit card’.
"My mate goes ‘okay, I’ll go clean it up and box it up for you’ and we were having a cup of tea downstairs in this little private VIP room and Roy said, ‘oh, your mate's a top man. It's business and he's trying to make a living and trying to make as much money as he can, and he put 10 watches out there and told me to have the cheapest one. He's one unbelievable bloke."
He continued: "I said, ‘you’re taking the p*** aren’t you?’ Roy thought it was £1,200, and I had to tell him it was £12,000. His face just went scarlet, he spit his tea out and said 'please don’t tell the lads, it’s too expensive I can’t believe I paid that for a watch'.
"So, then he's like, 'don't tell the lads, because I've only just got the club, they're going to think I'm really flash. I'm not that kind of guy'. So, of course, next day, Roy walked into training and there’s pictures of watches and clocks and everyone's asking him the time. He never lived in down for paying £12k for a watch."
John McDougall