Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane has paid a rare tribute to one Liverpool legend after admitting that he was an ‘unbelievable’ player during his playing career.
Roy Keane, who is widely considered one of the best captains of all time, had a legendary playing career during his remarkable spell at Manchester United.
The 52-year-old Irishman was a linchpin figure for former manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who promoted Keane to the captaincy after Eric Cantona’s retirement.
Keane excelled as United captain and was a formidable box-to-box midfielder, with the Irish hardman hoovering up the major silverware under Sir Alex Ferguson.
The Sky Sports pundit also wore the armband on the international stage and represented the Republic of Ireland 67 times in his glittering career.
Despite Keane playing regularly for his country – irrespective of silverware – the same could not be said for all of his former United teammates.
The former United and Republic of Ireland skipper previously revealed one Red Devils legend who “never” liked going away for international duty with his country.
Keane and Wright praise Liverpool legend
Roy Keane was on the Stick to Football show alongside Gary Neville, Ian Wright and Jill Scott, with Les Ferdinand making a special appearance on the episode.
Les Ferdinand, who was considered one of the best strikers in the 1990s, managed only 17 appearances for England and scored five times for the Three Lions.
Despite his impressive playing career at club level, Ferdinand was not the only former England striker to struggle with regular playing time for his country.
Other former England players who were limited in appearances included Arsenal hero Ian Wright, Manchester United legend Andy Cole and Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler.
Wright scored nine times in 33 appearances for the Three Lions, while treble-winner Andy Cole found the back of the net only once in 15 caps for England.
Robbie Fowler, who had a prolific playing spell at Anfield, managed only 26 appearances for England and scored seven times for the Three Lions in his career.
Keane spoke highly of the 48-year-old former Liverpool striker, with the United legend and Wright both calling him an unbelievable player.
“Look at Robbie Fowler,” he said on The Overlap, before adding: “How good was Robbie Fowler?
“He was an un[believable] [finisher]. And how many caps did Robbie get?”
Wright added: “Robbie was [an] unbelievable finish[er].”
Keane on England and Man Utd legend Cole
Keane admitted that the likes of Fowler, Wright, Ferdinand and Cole missed out on more international caps due to the managers in place at England.
Premier League legend Alan Shearer would be at the top of the pecking order for England managers in the 1990s, despite the stacked roster of talent in the team.
“But there must be managers at the time that thought these are really brilliant players,” Keane said.
“Listen, there’ll be reasons at club level, but they’d have maybe… not maybe doubts or I’m going with a certain striker and I’ll hang my hat on him, would it be a Shearer or whatever, and that’s why lads would miss out because […].”
Keane added that the likes of Cole, who had a legendary strike partnership with Dwight Yorke at United, would not “feel” international duty after being left out.
“But Coley… but there were certain players who would go into the England squad and, not just England, international [squads in general] and they just don’t feel it or get on with the staff,” he said.
“And lads don’t, they end up not going. Coley definitely stopped, didn’t he? He kind of almost fell out with that side of it.”