Search icon

Football

05th Feb 2018

Wayne Rooney recalls argument with Roy Keane on his first Man United away trip

"I think he respected me more for it"

Simon Lloyd

Who’d have thought Roy Keane was the argumentative type, eh?

Wayne Rooney made his debut on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football this week, wasting no time at all when it came to poking fun at Jamie Carragher.

Having offered his insight on Chelsea’s 4-1 defeat at Watford, Rooney reflected on his 13-year spell at Manchester United – a period in which he won pretty much every trophy available to him.

Rooney had joined United as an 18-year-old, leaving boyhood club Everton for £30m, a record fee for a teenager at the time.

Looking back at this move, Carragher asked Rooney if it had been intimidating to join United given some of the personalities at Old Trafford at that time.

“Obviously I was a bit nervous when I first went in,” Rooney explained. “But I knew from the England squad Rio, Gaz, Scholesey and Wes Brown, so I was quite comfortable.”

Rooney then reflected on his first away trip with the team, where he’d got involved in an argument with club captain Roy Keane.

“I always remember my first away trip, having an argument with Roy Keane,” he said. Asked to extend on what it was about, Rooney continued:

“Roy was watching the rugby the night before we played Newcastle away. He went to get his food so I turned over and put X Factor on and hid the remote.

“He wasn’t happy by then so we had an argument. But I think straight away he respected me more for it.

“It [the argument] came to a conclusion and ended but I think he looked at me and respected that I was big enough to have a go back at him.”

We can’t think of too many grown men who’d dare to hide the remote when Roy Keane was watching what he wanted on the telly. Let alone an 18-year-old.