PRAVDA TV
Last updated : 04 November 2005 By Editor
After players were called in yesterday to apparently watch the Roy Keane interview The Guardian reports that Roy Keane has already had another MUTV interview stashed away by the powers that be at Old Trafford. Manchester United are secretly hiding a second MUTV interview with Roy Keane in which he criticised Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with such venom that Sir Alex Ferguson ordered it should never go out on air. Ferguson ordered a cover-up and thought he had managed to keep it in-house until details emerged last night of a tirade every bit as inflammatory as Keane's diatribe this week about falling standards at Old Trafford and the questionable form of, among others, Rio Ferdinand, Darren Fletcher, John O'Shea, Alan Smith and Kieran Richardson.
Ferguson must have had a deeply unhappy sense of déjà vu when MUTV's producers contacted him on Monday about Keane's caustic observations as the same happened midway through the 2002-03 season. Although United finished as champions that year, they spent the first part of the campaign chasing Arsenal and Keane was unsparing in his criticism, accusing his colleagues of lacking the desire and talent to compete at the highest level. This was the first time Keane named names and the worst abuse was directed at Solskjaer, who scored only two goals in his opening 20 league appearances that season. The Norwegian, a cult hero for the fans, was castigated for the number of chances he had missed. On Ferguson's orders, the tape is now thought to be under lock and key at MUTV's offices.
At the time, Keane was said by a source at the club to have "gone ballistic" when the broadcast was not aired.
On another occasion Keane is described as having "lost it" when he saw Ruud van Nistelrooy combing his hair before an interview with MUTV at the club's training ground. Keane launched into an onslaught against the Holland striker, littered with four-letter words. The gist of his complaint was that Van Nistelrooy should be concentrating on scoring rather than "fiddling with your hair" for the cameras. MUTV officials were taken aback by his aggressive behaviour and Van Nistelrooy, not normally afraid to stand up for himself, was visibly shaken to be told in such uncompromising terms that his performances were not good enough.
