What Roy Keane and Sir Alex Ferguson said to one another in their final Manchester United confrontation proves their relationship had broken beyond repair.
Keane was stripped of the United captaincy in November 2005 after a censored MUTV interview saw him slam his teammates, which infuriated Ferguson.
The Irishman was then hauled in for showdown talks with Ferguson and chief executive at the time David Gill, with the talks ending in Keane leaving the club.
Keane laid out how the conversations went in his book 'The Second Half' and it's fair to say it wasn't pretty.
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"I'd known for a few days they were trying to get rid of me," the 48-year-old begun.
"I said to Ferguson, 'Can I play for somebody else? And he said, 'Yeah, you can. 'Cos we're tearing up your contract.
"I knew there'd be clubs in for me when the news got out. I said, 'Yeah. I think we have come to the end.'
"I just thought, 'F****** p****' and I stood up and went, 'Yeah, I'm off.'"
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United reached an agreement to pay out the rest of his contract and also explained Keane would receive a testimonial for his services.
Keane went on to explain that he apologised to Ferguson and assistant Carlos Queiroz following the incident, but he regretted doing so.
"Afterwards I was thinking, 'I'm not sure why I f****** apologised.'
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"I just wanted to do the right thing. I was apologising for what had happened - that it had happened.
"But I wasn't apologising for my behaviour or stance. There's a difference - I had nothing to apologise for."
There is no love lost between the duo and Keane had another dig at his former manager last year.
"I wouldn't forgive Ferguson. The media spin, how I apparently upset everybody, it was all nonsense," Keane told Off The Ball.
"I don't care if it's Alex Ferguson or the Pope, you're going to defend yourself."
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Keane also played down Ferguson's management style in the interview, and threw doubt on whether he had the best interests of the club at heart.
"People talk about Ferguson's man-management. Nonsense." he said.
"People said he always had the best interests of Manchester United at heart. Darren Ferguson [his son] won a medal. He was very lucky."
Ferguson himself criticised Keane in his autobiography, discussing the MUTV incident in detail.
"He criticised his team-mates," said Ferguson. "We could not release that video. It ended up with two young players being booed in Paris [against Lille] on the Wednesday.
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"The meeting in the room was horrendous. I just could not lose my control in that situation. If I had let it pass I think the players would have viewed me differently.
"Throughout my career I have been strong enough to deal with issues like that. Roy absolutely overstepped the line. There was nothing else we could do."
Featured Image Credit: PA & ITVTopics: Football, Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson, Man utd, Roy Keane
