"I'm just getting attacked from every angle!"
One of the big highlights of the 2022 World Cup, away from the stadiums and matches, has been the series that follows Roy Keane, Micah Richards and Gary Neville together.
'The World Cup Meet-Up' has reunited the Sky Sports pundits, and provided a barrel of laughs, hot-takes and memorable moments.
With Richards primarily on BBC duty, Keane on ITV's dime and Neville sharing his time between Sky, ITV and BeIN Sport, the idea was to get the trio together before, during and after the World Cup in Qatar. The lads filled out a wall-chart and made their predictions in the first episode, discussed the group stages in the next and caught up over lunch in the latest offering.
Richards' personality is infectious, Neville is trying his best but getting proved wrong a lot - particularly on Lionel Messi and 'very average' Argentina - but Keane is undoubtedly the star of the show.
In the latest episode, he
continued to rip the dancing Brazilians, slagged Neville for finishing up his career as a League Cup specialist and had the two lads in hysterics with a typical Irish lad on holidays remark.
Roy Keane on Weetabix, daily budgets and nights out
Roy Keane flew home for five days during the World Cup and both Micah Richards and Gary Neville were chuckling away as they enquired as to why.
KEANE: I had a break. My tolerance levels were... people getting on my nerves a bit.
RICHARDS: Who? Name names.
KEANE: How long have you got?! Fellow pundits.
The conversations prove Keane is just your typical Irish lad on a sun holiday. Exercise is either a stroll about, looking at knick-knacks, or going for a swim in the pool. No early morning visits to the gym, unlike English pundits like Richards, Alan Shearer, Danny Murphy and Neville, who have all been keeping on top of matters.
"What's that?" Keane asked Richards. "Gym? Honestly!"
The late finish of some games has seen the pundits left still going at 1am. That has let to some very late nights out (or early mornings out).
NEVILLE: You get home from the games bout 1:30am, and even if you pop in [to the hotel bar] for one, you're going up at 3am.
KEANE: I went to bed early, last night. I think it was about 5am!
That line, delivered in that classic dead-pan Roy Keane style, had both Neville and Richards in hysterics.
All three of the retired footballers admitted they had not been too brave with trying the local cuisine. Keane was treating Neville to breakfast one morning and it was such a microcosm of so many Irish and English holidaymakers - Weetabix and yoghurt. Nothing too fancy, here.
When it came to picking up the bill, Keane had good intentions, until his card was rejected.
"It rejected my card. It was over my limit. I've got a budget of £50 a day over here. I texted home -
'Send through another 50 quid'!"
You can
watch that full piece here, and here is a taster of the three lads in top form:
https://twitter.com/SkyBet/status/1601200710644731905
Related links.
