Teddy Sheringham has revealed that Roy Keane did not speak to him for over three years at Manchester United due to a dispute that took place on a night out.
The pair were ‘teammates’ at Old Trafford during the late 1990s and early 2000s – during the club’s most successful period and even won the famous treble together.
Sheringham, who scored United’s equaliser at the Camp Nou in 1999, has said that Keane stopped speaking to him mid-way through his first season at Old Trafford.
It all comes down to a night out during the 1997/98 season when they were sharing a lift home.
“All of a sudden, Keany said, ‘Why don’t you f*** off back to London in your f***ing red Ferrari and your penthouse?’” Sheringham says in a new book about Sir Alex Ferguson’s team titled, ‘Manchester United, the Treble and All That.’
“I went ‘Eh? And he says, ‘Yeah, f*** off back to London’.”
Sheringham adds that he fired back at Keane before a row broke out.
Denis Irwin, Peter Schmeichel, Gary Pallister and Steve Bruce were all believed to be in the minibus at the time.
“I’m like, ‘Are you coming for me, Keany?” Sheringham says. “Why are you coming for me, you Paddy? F***ing what?’
“And he went ‘f*** off’, and he goes on ‘f***ing red Ferrari, penthouse…’ And then he jumped round, still with his bad leg, got me by the tie, pulled me towards him, grappling with him.
“Suddenly everyone’s going ‘what’s going on?’ and pulling us apart. The rest of the players had to stop a brawl erupting in the minibus.
“And I’m saying, ‘No, what’s going on Keany? Let’s have it out. Why are you snapping at me for? I haven’t said anything to you’.”
Sheringham confirmed that from the next day onwards Keane just ignored him at training.
“I walked in past him and I’m thinking he’s going to get up and boot me in the face. I’m thinking ‘here we go’.
“And Keany gets up and walks out. He didn’t say a word to me. He didn’t say a word to me for the next three-and-a-half years.
“After that, not a word. On the pitch, he didn’t say anything to me. Nothing socially for the next four years, not even in the dressing room.”
