Roy Keane is certain to have ruffled some feathers with his latest comments in this week’s Stick to Football episode. So… business as usual, really.
In this instance, the Manchester United legend clashed with Ian Wright when discussing Alejandro Garnacho’s subdued celebration after scoring a tremendous goal to seal the Reds’ 3-0 win over Leicester City on Sunday.
It came only three days after the 20-year-old had been involved in a bizarre altercation with a so-called fan at Old Trafford. He’d waited outside the stadium for hours before United’s match against PAOK to essentially heckle Garnacho regarding his prior performances, to which the youngster responded: “Why are you not playing, man?”
Alas, when he proceeded to hold off on an over-the-top celebration at the weekend, Bruno Fernandes revealed post-match that the Argentine was feeling as though fans had ‘lost faith’ in him.
Tough love from Keane to Garnacho
Keane, as you’d perhaps expect, was far from sympathetic towards Garnacho. He explained to the panel that irrespective of what’s going on off the pitch, a player simply has to celebrate after scoring for their club.
“Whatever about this game, and we know these younger players suffered, but if you can’t celebrate a goal, there’s something drastically wrong with this game,” the former skipper began.
“Whatever is going on off the pitch for any player, it could be family stuff. When you score a goal, you work all week – you’re playing the game to score a goal. But no criticism should ever affect you celebrating a goal.
“Famous last words, ‘I’m different’. When you score a goal, there should be nothing else on your mind. They’re playing a game to score goals. They’ve got fans who have travelled and paid fortunes to get there, and he’s on about, ‘someone’s had a go at me’. People have travelled, you’ve scored a brilliant goal, enjoy it, get upset with people, and he can make his point on social media.
“Celebrate a goal – that’s what fans travel for. People make sacrifices to travel to watch Man United, and he scores a brilliant goal. United are having a tough time, and if a young player can’t enjoy scoring a goal for Man United, do you know what he should do? Get a job somewhere else. If he’s working in a factory somebody, would be giving him stick in the factory.
“There are idiots everywhere, them f*cking idiots everywhere, but my point is, when you score a goal, that’s gone. If he’s going to be upset with that – get a different job.”
Nice one Roy