Roy Keane has made his feelings clear on Vinnie Jones after being 'snubbed' as football's greatest hardman

Roy Keane shared his view on former Premier League opponent Vinnie Jones years after their ferocious encounters on the pitch.

The Manchester United legend was renowned for his tough tackling, short temper and fearsome leadership during his successful years in the Premier League and faced off against Jones both as a Nottingham Forest player and with the Red Devils.

Jones was one of the ringleaders of Wimbledon's infamous Crazy Gang and had two spells at the club, first at Plough Lane and later at Selhurst Park.

The Wales midfielder was renowned as a football hardman and doesn't count Keane among his peers in that regard.

Speaking to Gary Neville, Ian Wright and Paul Scholes on a recent Stick to Football podcast, Keane revealed his admiration for Jones and it had nothing to do with his undisputed status as an old-school football tough nut.

"Hasn't Vinnie Jones done well?" lauded the former Red Devils skipper.

"Unbelievable," agreed Wright.

Keane continued: "Obviously we see him acting now. We don't see him as an ex-footballer, we see him as an actor... You see him as a proper serious actor though, don't you?"

"Have you seen him in that 'The Gentlemen'?" asked Wright. "He is magnificent. I remember when he started, he didn't hardly speak."

Jones' succession of hard-as-nails Hollywood characters matches his on-field persona in football.

Despite picking himself in midfield with Graeme Souness and Jimmy Case in his all-time hardman eleven, Jones once named another player as his hardest opponent.

Vinnie Jones was feared on the pitch throughout his time at Wimbledon (Image: Getty)

Jones famously stuck an early reducer on Souness' Liverpool successor Steve McMahon in the 1988 FA Cup final, a red card challenge today in anyone's money but one that barely registered with the Reds midfielder until McMahon got his own back later in the game.

"I'd watched a video and [Alan] Hansen or someone would knock the ball to [McMahon] who'd then let it come across him to open up so he could play it out the other side," Jones told talkSPORT [via Liverpool Echo] in 2018.

"The boys knew I was going to smash him because I'd told them that if I could early enough, the referee wasn't going to send me off in front of in front of about 100,000 people, but I didn’t get too much of a response from the lads, so it was a bit of a gamble!"

Wimbledon shocked Liverpool in that final at Wembley, giving Jones his only major honour in senior football.

Keane has him beaten on that front, at least.