Roy Keane shows true colours with Declan Rice comments after questioning £105m Arsenal man
Declan Rice's phenomenal pair of free-kicks against Real Madrid in the Champions League won praise from Roy Keane, who has often criticised the £105m Arsenal midfielder
Roy Keane insists he wasn’t shocked by Declan Rice's astonishing free-kick double against Real Madrid - despite his previous criticism of the midfielder. Rice put Arsenal in the driving seating in their Champions League quarter-final with a pair of jaw-dropping set-piece strikes before Mikel Merino struck to make it 3-0.
While Rice is regarded as one of the Premier League’s best middlemen, Keane has taken numerous verbal swipes at the former West Ham star over the years. However, the Manchester United great has proved he is able to dish out an odd dollop of praise too as he assessed the Gunners’ first leg win over the 15-time European champions, suggesting he always had belief in him.
“Declan Rice has great technique in terms of striking the ball,” he said on the Stick to Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet. “Those two goals against Real Madrid, I was not that shocked that he did it.
"He has got that in his locker. The second goal was fantastic. If Rice can keep getting more goals, then he can be on a whole different level like some of the greater players out there. The goals add to it.”
Rice has been left bemused by pundits' criticism that he doesn't score enough. Asked by The Athletic last year if he thought it was fair, he said: “No, not really.
“Because Roy Keane, [Graeme] Souness, [Jamie] Redknapp, people that talk about my goalscoring ability, if you looked at their goals, they didn’t score hundreds in their career.
“But they’re remembered for what they did as midfield players: Roy Keane breaking up play, being a hard-tackling midfielder, won loads of titles for United. The same with Souness.
“So I don’t know why when it comes to me it’s all about goals, because it’s never been my game. But since I’ve been scoring, no one has said anything!”
Keane has previously questioned the £105million transfer fee the Gunners paid for Rice. Speaking right after the move, the Irishman said: "They've obviously paid way too much for him. He's not worth over £100m."
He had already been on Rice’s case during his time at West Ham, saying: "For all the talk about him, a lot of good PR coming out of West Ham... I think he needs to do a lot more.”
Keane also took a swipe during Euro 2024 after Rice had hit back at the criticism of England’s dreary group stage performances. He said: “The modern player seems to be a bit more delicate to criticism.
"I know there’s more of it because of social media particularly, but again these players… I judge players by actions.”
But Keane was full of praise for Rice and Arsenal in general after the Real game, describing it as a “proper brilliant European performance”.
Arsenal, 11 points behind Liverpool in the Premier League with just seven matches to play, will return to action at home to Brentford on Saturday before they head to the Spanish capital for the return leg on Wednesday.
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