ITV pundit Ian Wright's true off-air Roy Keane feelings amid latest row - 'I didn't like him'
Ian Wright and Roy Keane will be on ITV punditry duty when Newcastle United face Brighton & Hove Albion in the FA Cup on Sunday afternoon
Ian Wright and Roy Keane will be reunited on Sunday afternoon as the pair are set to feature on ITV Sport's coverage of Newcastle United v Brighton.
The Magpies are bidding to book their place in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and have been pitted against Brighton at St. James' Park.
Despite plenty of intrigue in the fixture, Wright and Keane's off-screen relationship has hit the headlines recently after the pair came to blows over the form of Bruno Fernandes for Manchester United.
Their row quickly excalated during last week's episode of Stick to Football, with Keane tearing into United's current struggles on the pitch by saying: "They draw at Everton, and it's like they've won the cup! Bizarre. I see fans at matches, they're singing for Bruno [Fernandes], these boys - I'm thinking, f***ing imposters."
Wright interrupted: "No bro, not Bruno," which angered his Irish counterpart. "Wrighty, Wrighty, come on. I've had enough of that rubbish," Keane irately responded back, with the ex-England forward replying: "If you're gonna dig someone out, don't dig him [Fernandes] out, come on, Roy."
"I'm watching him - sit and watch a game," Keane hit back. "Sit and watch a game with him [in]. We watched him in the FA Cup, and I watched him at Everton. People pretend to be closing people down. We're 15th in the league and he's saving them?" before the win over Ipswich, adding a sarcastic: "Praise the lord."
"Talent is not enough," Keane continued. "Bruno is a talented player, but talent is not enough. It's not enough, Wrighty. Bruno is not a fighter. You want someone going, 'Lads, are you with me? Are you with me?'"
It remains to be seen whether the recent drama will be brought up during ITV's FA Cup coverage, but Wright's past comments regarding the Irish legend are telling none the less.
Having competed against each other during their playing days, Wright has in the past admitted he did not like Keane's attitude after comments he made about their playing successes.
The former Celtic man was a serial winner during his time at Old Trafford but Wright believes the 53-year-old often went about things in the wrong way.
"I see him as my friend now, but like I say, when we played I didn’t like him. I didn’t like him at all," Wright said speaking to the YouTube channel UMM.
"I remember when I won my Premier League medal, when the camera came in I remember saying 'Roy Keane winners medal' because Roy Keane one time said to me ‘Wrighty, you’ve got a cabinet full of losers' medals!'
"It’s the kind of comment I would have said to him if the shoe was on the other foot.
"But when he said it, it hurts you but I was laughing deep down because it’s a killer, it finishes you, bam. Even when I reminded him, he said 'nah I didn’t say that’. I said, ‘Roy, it’s not something you forget!'”
Speaking on Off The Ball in 2021, Wright explained their on-screen partnership in further detail. He said: "Me and Roy Keane always argued when we was on the pitch. We were always swinging at each other with respect to words and saying stuff and things like that. The thing is that when you're doing it as well, even at the time, you knew him. I remember when Roy Keane signed for United from Forest, we had some run-ins when he was at Forest, but when he signed for United I remember we played them in South Africa, I think we beat them, scored a couple of penalties and we beat Man United. I remember being in the tunnel and saying, 'all the best for your United career,' and he said, 'Yeah, cheers,' and it was always like that. But when we was on the pitch...
"If I didn't have Tony Adams as a captain and a leader I'd probably want someone like Roy Keane as a captain and a leader. Especially now that I know him. We talk about football all the time, we talk about it for days. He's the sort of character, it's all about winning. And whatever it takes in respect of you as a professional to get in a situation and a position to make sure that you win is the only thing that he's going to accept. He's not going to accept anything less than that.
"You know what's really good about it, is the way that we went at each other then, to be able to call him my friend now. We talk about all sorts of stuff now, it makes me feel good."
Wright added: "It's not even a case of you playing off each other. Roy says what he says and then you either disagree with it or you agree with it but if you disagree then you know that you're going into an area when you don't know what's coming next. What I love about it is that I'm never far away from bursting out laughing and he's not neither. Of course, he's a serious guy, and he always says to me before we go on, 'Wrighty don't give me none of that banter b******s man, I'm here to talk serious football'. So I'm already getting ready to laugh and smile with him but he never says anything on there for effect. When he says something, I remember a little while back he said something about David De Gea and Harry Maguire, he meant that. So I think people get confused with him saying that, but he meant that. So when you know Roy Keane, you take that for what it is because he probably would be swinging.
"But for me and Roy now, it's like, when they say, 'Wrighty it's you and Roy Keane,' instantly excited. Because we have a great day, then we go on the box and he'll be talking normally, but he literally turns into another person as soon as the music for the intro is finished, and it's not like he's switching something, that's just what he is. 'I'm here to talk about football and I'm serious, I'm here to talk serious stuff and I mean exactly what I'm telling you'. I don't have as much fun on the television, obviously Shearer and Lineker are magnificent but when I'm on with Roy there are butterflies in my stomach as you don't know what's coming."