Roy Keane and Peter Schmeichel once had a brutal hotel bust-up.
The Manchester United legends had a late-night fight in a corridor, which left shot-stopper Schmeichel nursing a black eye.
And needless to say boss Sir Alex Ferguson was furious and club legend Sir Bobby Charlton was left mortified after watching the sorry incident unfold.
“When I was injured and I came back Peter didn’t want to give me the captaincy so there was a bit of tension between us,”Keane told the Overlap Live event in Manchester last week.
“Good tension. We don’t like each other but I’m glad you’re my goalkeeper, you know what I mean.
“We were on pre-season, drinking as usual until three or four in the morning I said something to Peter and he was waiting for me outside of the room.
“I went back to Nicky Butt’s room for a club sandwich, really exciting stuff. There was no women or heroin, it was a club sandwich.
“I came out of the room and Peter’s waiting and he says ‘I’ve had enough of you!’.
“I remember I was coming round and I was thinking ‘you’ve had enough of me? Let’s get it on’.
“Obviously we had a fight. It seemed like ages, but I’m guessing it was like two or three minutes."what you
If Keane and Schmeichel got into the boxing ring, who would you back to win? Comment below
Keane and Schmeichel celebrated unprecedented success at Old Trafford despite their infamous fight.
But their competitive spirit pushed them further than they’d both have liked, even though it was Irishman Keane who landed the telling blow.
“Believe it or not Nicky Butt was involved, Butty’s always on the scene. If something’s going on Nicky Butt’s there somewhere,” recalled Keane. “Good or bad he’s on the fringes — sort of like when he played.
“The next morning, I’m rooming with Denis Irwin, and this is the funny bit because we’re late for the bus. Denis Irwin is the most straight guy, I reckon he still goes to Mass every Sunday, so straight.
“Denis is going ‘Roy, we’re late’ and I’m saying ‘Denis, f**king shut up will you. You’re giving me a headache’.
“We’re getting our bags ready, he’s shouting at me and my hand was really sore. I said to Denis ‘I’m sure I was fighting last night, but I can’t remember’.
“We get on the bus and Ferguson’s going mad. I get to the back of the bus and ask Butty what happened. I say ‘I vaguely remember, was I fighting with Peter?’ And Peter had glasses on and this is early in the morning.
“We land wherever we go on to. There’s a press conference and two players had to do it and it was me and Peter.
“Eventually Peter takes his glasses off and he’s got a bit of a black eye.
“Ferguson pulled us when we got back to Manchester; he was mad and said ‘the two of you are a disgrace to the club and you’re going to get fined’.
“He says Sir Bobby Charlton was on the same floor as us and said we were a disgrace, I was thinking ‘he could have broke the fight up!’
However, Keane, who recently snubbed a return to management with Sunderland, stressed: “Honestly, we had a great dressing room. Peter’s held his hand up since, again it was a late night believe it or not. It’s never over breakfast is it.
“To be fair to Peter, I’ll give him a little bit of credit, he said ‘gaffer, gaffer, it was my fault, I was waiting for him’. So he took the fall for it and after that we were okay.
“It was good to get rid of that tension between us. It was a good fight.”
- The Overlap is a YouTube channel from Gary Neville in partnership with Sky Bet
