New Republic of Ireland assistant dismisses comments in Ferguson’s autobiography.
Former Manchester United star Roy Keane has accused Sir Alex Ferguson of lying and has insisted he is no ‘monster’.
Keane returned to full-time coaching last week when he was appointed assistant to new Republic of Ireland boss Martin O’Neill.
The pair have been described as ‘fire and ice’ in Eire, with some critics feeling Keane is too hot-headed to be success in the role.
The ex-United enforcer is a legend at Old Trafford after helping the Red Devils to seven Premier League titles but Keane was savaged by Ferguson, who described his former captain as ‘frightening’ in his autobiography.
“The hardest part of Roy’s body is his tongue,” Ferguson, boss at Old Trafford for 26 years, wrote.
But Keane has insisted he is not interested in discussing Ferguson’s ‘lies’ after completing his first training session alongside O’Neill.
“I’ve no issues. The beauty of football is that everybody has opinions and I’ve no problem with that. The issue I have is when anybody who seems to talk about me, or has issues with what I’ve said in the past, will just tell lies about me. That’s when I’ll come out and defend myself. I’m not going to sit here and defend myself regarding Alex Ferguson; that’s for another day. I’m not really going to get into that too much. Football is about opinions, no problem about that, but when it’s lies that’s when you come out and say something. Today is not for that. Today is about talking about getting back involved with the Irish team with Martin, all positive. It’s not an area I want to go at today.”
Keane, who was sacked from his second managerial post at Ipswich in January 2011, added that he felt his reputation had prevented him from getting a job sooner
“People were almost building this monster [saying]: ‘I couldn’t give him a job.'”
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