Roy Keane has insisted, through gritted teeth, that he would not be annoyed if Manchester City match Manchester United ’s famous achievement from the 1999 season.
City reached the FA Cup final by beating Sheffield United 3-0 at Wembley on Saturday afternoon. Riyad Mahrez scored all three goals, becoming the first player to score three the last four of the FA Cup since Manchester United’s Alex Dawson in 1958.
Mahrez’s hat-trick could help City match another of United’s historic records, with Pep Guardiola’s side still in contention to win three competitions. They will play the winner of Sunday’s semi-final between United and Brighton in the FA Cup final on June 3.
City are also still in with a shot of winning the Champions League for the first time after their 4-1 aggregate win over Bayern Munich in the quarter-final in mid-week. They will play against Real Madrid in the semi-final, with the other match between AC Milan and Inter Milan.
Meanwhile, the Premier League title race has taken a turn for the better, with Arsenal drawing their past three matches to leave City just five points behind with two games in hand. Guardiola’s side play Arsenal on Wednesday in a match which could go a long way to deciding who wins the title.
All of that has been a lot to take in for United legend Keane, who was captain during the 1998/99 season, when the club won the league, FA Cup and Champions League. Keane was on punditry duty at Wembley on Saturday and was asked about City’s chances of completing a treble.
Asked if it would irritate him if Man City won the treble, he replied with a smirk: “Yeah…” His answer was greeted by laughter from Ian Wright and Karen Carney in the studio, but he quickly changed his mind.
“No, no, I don’t begrudge teams a bit of success,” he added. “I’m not one of them people. I look at teams and I know how hard it is to win trophies so if City go on to win it then, honestly, I’ll say ‘well done’ as I know how tough it is.
“But they’ve got a few hurdles to get over, particularly in terms of Real Madrid, but obviously there are red-hot favourites for the FA Cup and, of course, the league. But I think Real Madrid is a tough one to come.”
Wright then added: “If they do the treble then they’d have to win the league – and if they do that I’d be disappointed but at the same time, the reason why the treble is such a tough thing to do is because it’s an unbelievable achievement. If they do that they’ll have done well to do that. I’d be disappointed with that, this season.”
