
Share
2nd May 2022
12:07pm BST

New Manchester United signing Roy Keane poses with a club scarf at Old Trafford after signing from Nottingham Forest ahead of the 1993/94 season. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Allsport/Getty Images)[/caption]
"Not long after I signed for Blackburn, I was out in a restaurant with Kenny and his family. Kenny went out on the phone and I thought, 'Okay, he must be doing a little bit of business'. And he comes back in with this huge grin on his face. "And I said, 'Oh, someone's happy'. And Kenny said, 'I think we've done a deal to get Roy Keane to Blackburn'. I said, 'Really?' "And then, about two hours later and after him celebrating with a couple of glasses of red wine, he's gone back outside. And he came back in with a face like ****ing thunder! "He said, 'We lost him, he's gone. Fergie's got him'. "Oh my God, he was seething. So it could have been oh so different."Keane was an instant success at United and helped them to a league and FA Cup double in his first season there. Shearer and Dalglish got a small measure of revenge by pipping United to the league title in 1994/95, but Ferguson, as he so often did in his managerial career, made some bold calls and reeled off further league wins in 1996 and 1997, as Blackburn began to falter. Shearer was the one that left Ferguson seething, in 1996, when he turned down Manchester United for the second time, this time opting to join Newcastle United for £15m. Shearer and Keane had a few run-ins over the years, with the Ireland midfielder once seeing red for having a go at Shearer at St James' Park. The full Alan Shearer clip is below, and forgive the MOTD Twitter admin for the excitement over a story Irish football fans know all about. https://twitter.com/BBCMOTD/status/1521035717803139072 As for Kenny Dalglish, he eventually cooled down and memorably collared Keane at a function they were both at. During a charity event, in 2018, that both Keane and the former Liverpool and Blackburn boss appeared at, Dalglish said, "The next time I saw you, you'd won about three [league championships], a European Cup. I said, 'I told you you'd made a mistake!'" "At that stage," Dalglish added, "given the history of Manchester United, where would you go? Where would you move?"
Explore more on these topics: