Former Liverpool midfielder Jason McAteer has offered to settle his two-decade dispute with Roy Keane, but admits he was “disappointed” by a recent remark from the former Manchester United midfielder.
McAteer and Keane were international colleagues for the Republic of Ireland, but the former United captain had a high-profile feud with then-manager Mick McCarthy in the lead-up to the 2002 World Cup. The pair later got into an altercation on the pitch during Sunderland’s match against the Red Devils at the Stadium of Light, with Keane being sent off for an elbow on McAteer.
During a recent episode of Gary Neville’s Stick to Football podcast, which included Keane, the former midfielder stated that his international teammate deserved the elbow. Keane and McAteer have had a long-running dispute since the event in the build-up to the World Cup, when the Premier League winner stayed at home ahead of the South Korea-Japan match.
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“The Premier League starts, and he’s kicking the s*** out of Mikey Holland and other players, venting his frustration at Irish players, and then he comes to the Stadium of Light,” McAteer claimed on the Undr the Cosh podcast. “His book had just come out, and someone had left it on my doorstep, so I asked one of the kids to stand outside the dressing room and get it signed by him.
“He came in, and we had it in the middle of the park; I sprinted off him for the equaliser, which I don’t believe he appreciated. I remember hammering one from 30 yards and the goalkeeper saving it; it flew off in the middle of the park, I dragged him back, and he elbowed me.
“He was threatening to rip my head off, this and that, and I simply gave him that (spoken hand gesture). He said something, and I just answered, ‘put it in your next book, I’m sure I’ll read about it, d*******’.
“He calms down, waits until the final 30 seconds of the game, then goes bosh and elbows me in the head. He tried to be clever a few weeks ago, saying I earned it and that I was never his teammate, which saddened me because it’s been 20 years,” he added.
“When we arrived in Saipan, we all had jetlag, so we ended up walking down the beach for two or three nights; it was the most we ever spoke, and he opened up.” I enjoyed his company; he’s fine; I’ve run into him in local restaurants; he won’t admit it, as if he doesn’t know me.
“I was disappointed by what he said the other week about not being teammates, and I deserved to be elbowed.” At the end of the day, if someone did it in the street, they’d go to prison; it’s assault; he shouldn’t have done it; and, at the end of the day, going out and being as vocal about it as I am is not a pleasant thing to do. Move on. I’ve fuelled the fire myself over the years; if he wants to patch things up, he knows where I am.”
