'Don't be brainwashed by propaganda' - Roy Keane reveals another reason why he left Manchester United

Roy Keane

Independent.ie Newsdesk

Republic of Ireland assistant manager Roy Keane has revealed how his refusal to pay a £5,000 fine contributed to his infamous Manchester United exit.

Speaking at an event for Cappamore Celtic in Limerick, the 46-year-old claimed he wouldn't have left the Old Trafford club if he had paid a fine for his MUTV outburst.

His quotes were reported in the Limerick Leader.

"The only reason I ended up leaving Man United was I appealed a €5,000 fine. If I hadn’t appealed the fine I wouldn’t have left Man United - don’t be brainwashed by the propaganda and lies. It is peanuts, you get fined that for being late for training at United. I appealed because I felt I shouldn’t have been fined for speaking about a match on the club station," he said.

"Have I stepped out of line? Damn right I have. Man United fined me about half a million pounds over my career but that is because I was sent off and I always held my hands up. Ironically when I appealed a €5,000 fine that’s when I left the club.

"I wished they played this video. It is propaganda, [saying] ‘we had to destroy it’. How do you even destroy a video? I left with my head held up high, I was fine with my actions, I always felt my intentions were to do the best for Man United."

In his autobiographies, the Cork native has described how confronting Alex Ferguson over his legal dispute with John Magnier and JP McManus over Rock of Gibraltar, getting involved in a row with Carlos Quieroz after the assistant boss had questioned his loyalty and criticising his teammates in the unseen footage on MUTV led to his departure from United.

Keane also tackled the subject of the drinking culture that surrounded the Irish team during Jack Charlton's tenure.

“I was as guilty as anyone, I loved craic, I loved going out. We would report on Sunday in Dublin for a match on Wednesday. Jack would pull the players together and say, ‘Look you can go for a few pints tonight’.

“Jack knew how to man-manage. I still believe that is enough recovery unless you are out all night. I was a young player. You would have played on a Saturday and I always felt if you played hard you are entitled to a few pints. Nothing wrong with that, everything in moderation. Jack would say he would like us back by 12 o’clock. This was about 4pm. I’m thinking, ‘This is fair enough, plenty of time to get steamed up, that will do me’.

“The senior players would go to Jack and say, ‘12 is an awkward time, you don’t leave the pub at quarter to 12 because usually if you’re out at 12 you’re probably going on somewhere else and only getting warmed up’.

“Jack would say, ‘OK, 2am, we’ve a big game on Wednesday - that’s the cut-off-point’. I’m thinking, ‘Brilliant, I was happy with 12!”. The senior players said, ‘Jack, if you’re out at 2 you’re in a club and who leaves a club at 2? Two is awkward, Jack’.

“Jack goes, ‘Alright lads, 4 o’clock, cut-off-point’. I’m in the background thinking, ‘Happy days, I might even nip back to Cork!’ Do you think we were happy at 4? Honestly, may I drop dead, the senior players said, ‘Jack, if you’re out ‘til 4 you might have got lucky, you can’t come back at 4’. Jack [exasperated] would say, ‘Just be back in the morning!.’

“We would train at 2 on the following afternoon, all dying. If anyone came to watch Ireland train on Monday afternoon they were in for a shock - how were they going to play on Wednesday?

After training I would be back lying on my bed watching TV and Jack would be doing his press conference on RTE. He’d say, ‘I’ve never seen the players looking so sharp, training was the best I’ve seen in a long time!’. Jack was a brilliant man-manager. Come the Wednesday we would generally get the result.”