Gary Neville tells story of when Roy Keane was forced to 'snitch' on his Man Utd teammates to Sir Alex Ferguson

Roy Keane was once so offended by his Manchester United teammates' inability to sign items for charity he went straight to Sir Alex Ferguson to fix it.

The Irishman spent 12 years at Old Trafford and captained the side from 1997 until his departure in 2005, leading by example in every case.

Keane was a captain in every sense of the word. You had to ensure your principles were in line with his, or he'd let you know.

Nothing sums it up more than his reaction to an incident involving the club's charity administrator Wendy Rennison.

United players would sign match balls that were then sent to children's charities across the country. At first, many obliged and did so with no issue.

According to Gary Neville, standards started to slip. That's when Keane stepped in.

The ex-United full-back told The Diary of A CEO podcast: "Wendy used to get the charity ball signed, and Roy Keane was like this as well. Every Thursday, Wendy would have 30 to 40 charity balls that we would sign, and they would go to the children's charities in Greater Manchester or in the country.

"Sometimes you're in a rush, aren't you? You're young, you're a football player, 'Ah Wendy I'll sign them after I'm in a rush, I've got to do my stretching, I've got to have a massage, I've got to have my treatment,' whatever you might say when you're on the way in, a poor excuse or generally you did."

What forced Keane to get involved was when just five of the 23-man squad had signed the match balls for Wendy.

Keane walked past a visibly upset Wendy in the hallway and asked what was wrong.

"Roy walked past Wendy and she was a little upset because only five of 23 players in the squad had signed the balls," Neville continued.

"Roy went upstairs and said to Sir Alex [Ferguson] it's an absolute disgrace this has happened for a couple of weeks now. He killed us. He absolutely killed us. The lack of respect to walk past Wendy, who was there to get the charity balls signed and not sign them for her, for him, was a dereliction of duty and a lack of respect. It's not what you do."

Keane left United in November 2005 after an explosive interview on MUTV. He targeted a number of United players for their attitude in a 4-1 defeat to Middlesbrough a month prior.

He retired in 2006 after a short spell in the Scottish Premiership with Celtic.

In all, Keane won 17 trophies at Old Trafford. Nine of those came during his stint as captain, making him the most successful captain in United history on the pitch. He was clearly an influence off it too.