Former Manchester United goalkeeper Luke Steele has claimed that two of his ex-teammates had a trick to avoid Roy Keane in training, back when the Irishman was club captain.
The Irishman had a fearsome presence on the pitch, one that seemingly carried weight in training sessions as well.
In the 2005-06 season, Keane's final for United before he joined Celtic, Sir Alex Ferguson had three keepers at his disposal: Edwin Van Der Sar, Tim Howard and the aforementioned Steele.
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In the words of Steele, who went on to have a solid career in the EFL with both Coventry City and Barnsley, his two positional rivals were terrified of bumping into Keane in and around the Carrington training facility.
"When I was number three, there was me, Tim Howard and van der Sar." the 37-year-old stated on the Under The Cosh podcast.
"And Tony Coton, the goalie coach, when we went over to do the games, he said to me one day he said 'have you ever noticed you're always on Roy Keane's side?', And I was like oh not really."
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"And he said 'yeah because the other two are s*** scared, so they always choose the other team', van der Sar and Tim Howard."
As Steele himself attests to, Keane's reputation in the world of football was warranted - as he wouldn't exactly hold back on his own teammates.
A no-nonsense approach is something the Cork-native has very much carried over into his Sky Sports punditry, as is evidenced by his recent rant on United's defensive shape.
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"And it's true, you don't want to be on his side, you'd rather be playing against him because you know you're not going to get a b*******ing from him," the former Panathinaikos stopper added.
"So there was me, getting b*******ings all over, like every time I played but big grown international, Champions League winners were like that.
"He had that effect on people."
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Manchester United, Premier League, Edwin Van Der Sar, Champions League, Roy Keane