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Roy Keane's Man Management Described As '0/100' Ahead Of Potential Sunderland Return

Roy Keane's Man Management Described As '0/100' Ahead Of Potential Sunderland Return

Keane has been interviewed for the Sunderland job 14 years after his first spell as manager at the Stadium of Light ended.

Roy Keane's coaching ability has been thrown into question by one former player, who has claimed the Irishman has 'zero out of 100' man management skills.


Keane has not been a manager since leaving Ipswich Town 11 years ago, which was just his second job in charge of a football team.

Since then the 50-year-old has gone on to be assistant manager at Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and with the Republic of Ireland national team.

It's been nearly three years since his final stint, with Forest, ended and he's mainly been working as a tv pundit since then, building an excellent, and surprisingly hilarious, on screen partnership with Micah Richards.

Whilst Sunderland might see him as the ideal candidate to return to the Stadium of Light, following Lee Johnson's sacking, one former player doesn't think he's the right man.

"The problem with Roy Keane when he came to Aston Villa was he couldn't understand we weren't as good with the players he played with," Gabby Agbonlahor told talkSPORT, having worked with Keane when the Irishman was Paul Lambert's assistant.

"He couldn't accept that we weren't as good as [Ryan] Giggs, [Paul] Scholes, [David] Beckham and them players and just his way of coaching wasn't the right method for players nowadays and players when he was at Aston Villa.

Keane was Lambert's assistant for four months. Image: PA Images
Keane was Lambert's assistant for four months. Image: PA Images

"And just the way he spoke to players. There were times where there were experienced players like Joe Cole and he just didn't speak to them right.

"He spoke to them in a way that was disrespectful. His man-management I'd say was a zero out of 100 it was that bad."

Agbonlahor, who also told a bizarre story about the end of Keane's time at the club, was captain at the time and thinks he had a part in Keane leaving just four months after taking the job at Villa Park.

"There was a time in training when we were doing this shooting drill, so imagine all 22 players doing a shooting drill and you've got to pass it to five different people get it out wide then get a cross in.

"...The gaffa Paul Lambert says "this isn't good enough, the standards aren't good enough" so me as captain I came forward and backed the players and said 'well gaffa you know we're only getting one shot every ten or 11 minutes so we need to do something different.'

"Roy Keane come forward and said 'oh are you cold do you need another warm-up' and I sort of said 'I'm not talking to you Roy, I'm talking to the manager.'

"He gave me that evil stare and the next day he left. So I think at that time he left Aston Villa because of me."

Featured Image Credit: Alamy

Topics: Roy Keane, Sunderland, Premier League