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The Warm-Up: Roy Keane stoops to new low with jibe at Jon Walters' grief

Tom Adams

Updated 05/09/2019 at 07:58 GMT

Roy Keane is making headlines again, while there's also beef at the Football Association...

Roy Keane

Image credit: Getty Images

THURSDAY’S BIG HEADLINES

Roy Keane settles scores in disgusting fashion

Roy Keane never forgives. Roy Keane never forgets. And when Roy Keane wants to settle a score it doesn’t matter how long he has to wait.
The former Republic of Ireland manager was speaking at a media event last night and used an opportunity to discuss Cadbury’s sponsorship of the Premier League to instead reopen a feud which erupted in the dog days of his spell with the national side.
If you recall, and Keane certainly does, relations grew decidedly frosty between Keane and a trio of players in particular: Jon Walters, Harry Arter and Stephen Ward. This all became very public knowledge when a WhatsApp voice message from Ward was somehow leaked in September, with the full-back describing confrontations between Keane and his colleagues.
Last night, Keane took his revenge.
“Harry Arter went to Cardiff on loan, they got relegated," he said at a live recording of Off The Ball. "Wardy can't get in the Stoke team at the moment and they're down at the bottom of the league.
Imagine if Jon won a trophy. He talks a good game. He goes on the TV, on about how he was harshly treated by me. Not kicking a ball for Burnley for two or three years. On TV, crying about his family situation. You know, how about lying low for a while, taking it easy? Have a look at his medals? Wouldn’t take long.
“Ironically two or three years ago when his career was coming to the end, he went to Ipswich on loan. I was laughing my head off.
"When we were beaten by Wales, he didn’t have a good game. Wardy didn’t have a good game. They need to go back and watch how bad they were.”
Incidentally, the incident that Keane is seemingly referring to regarding Walters “crying on TV” appears to be an appearance on The Late Late Show in May of this year when Walters discussed the death of his mother. And his brother. And his wife’s miscarriage. Imagine the poison embedded deep within your heart which could lead you to summon that up as material to use against someone.
Keane is an endlessly compelling figure but an emotional dinosaur and an empathy black hole. And his comments deserve scorn. A man totally out of touch with the modern game, he then cited a manager who won his last trophy in 1990 as an apparently relevant role model. You can probably guess who that was already.
“People say I was very demanding," he said. "As if I should almost apologise for it, particularly when I'm in a coaching role. Sometimes you're trying to motivate players. Did I get it drastically wrong with the situation at Sunderland? At Ipswich? Maybe they (players) got it wrong. Maybe they over-reacted.
Brian Clough. You're on about motivation. He punched me one time. He was upset. It was heated. He punched me. I remember thinking 'You're still a brilliant manager'. I came in the next day and trained. I didn't text somebody in the media. Or go on Ratsapp.
Yes, coining a sarky, dismissive term for one of the most prominent forms of communication in the modern world is a pretty good way to get the message out that you don’t understand how that world really works any more.

FA chief takes aim at ‘arrogant’ U21s

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English FA technical director Leslie Reed (R) with England coach Andy Boothroyd before the 2019 UEFA U-21 Championship Group C match between England and France

Image credit: Getty Images

After yesterday’s Shearer-Owen Twitter spat it’s apparently another day full of beef at The Warm-Up. Following Keane, now it's FA technical director Les Reed, who has had a pop at the England U21 squad who disappointed at the summer’s European Championships.
England were knocked out at the group stage after collecting one point in three games despite having players of the calibre of Phil Foden, James Maddison and Aaron Wan-Bissaka. But was manager Aidy Boothroyd to blame? Not so, according to Reed.
“So, was it Aidy? No, it wasn't. It was a number of things. I think it was probably over-confidence. It was a mental thing in believing they were going to win the tournament and probably being over-confident and then actually realising in game play that there is another team out there and it's not a walkover.
That year group is a tough year group, particularly when half of them had already won a World Cup and then a number of them were starting to become household names and getting Premier League appearances and being talked up. Inevitably when that happens they get into the realms of talking about new contracts and negotiations at their clubs. And I think when you want to win tournaments, you need to be confident. You need to have a bit of a swagger. But it doesn't need to border on the arrogance and I think getting that balance right, I didn't think we achieved that completely.

Metzelder in child porn investigation

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Christoph Metzelder

Image credit: Getty Images

A truly shocking story emerged from Germany yesterday with former Real Madrid defender Christoph Metzelder places under investigation for alleged child pornography offences.

IN OTHER NEWS

Nicklas Bendtner has just signed for FC Copenhagen. Let’s check in to see how training is going....

THE WORLD OF SPORT

A brief diversion away from football, if you will allow The Warm-Up such an indulgence. Yesterday an amazing story came out of the Vuelta a Espana, with police confirming they had busted a rooftop weed farm in Igualada after eagle-eyed viewers noticed the suspicious bushes from a helicopter shot during Stage 8 and posted about it on social media.
Clearly there is no end in sight to cycling’s drug problem.

RETRO CORNER

The Euro 2020 qualifiers return tonight with Spain, notably, in action. What better way to mark that event than by reliving one of the greatest ever Euros matches: their frenetic, ridiculous 4-3 win over Yugoslavia at Euro 2000.

COMING UP

We’ve got live text commentary for you on the Euro qualifiers which pit Spain against Romania and Ireland against Switzerland, both of which kick-off at 7:45pm.
Eurosport also has live and exclusive coverage of Stage 12 of La Vuelta at 1:45pm today. Tune in as helicopter images of a suspiciously large laundromat lead Spanish police to uncover the Basque Country’s biggest meth lab.
Ben Snowball has no idea how those plants got there and hasn’t even been living in that flat for at least four weeks. Barring any further enquires he’ll be filling in for me on tomorrow’s Warm-Up.
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