Roy Keane’s biggest personal vendettas ranked: Ferguson, Haaland, Carrick’s wife… | OneFootball

Roy Keane is one of the biggest personalities in football today and it’s safe to say that the former Manchester United skipper has plenty of personal vendettas.

While the 54-year-old has cooled down in recent years, he still loves to throw the odd grenade when discussing his most bitter rivals.

We’ve ranked Keane’s biggest personal vendettas from friendly banter to pure hatred.

Note: we can’t resist a nod to Adrian Chiles, who didn’t quite make this shortlist despite making Keane lose the will to live more than once.

8. Bruno Fernandes

Keane has been a vocal critic of the United captain in the past, although he’s become slightly more complimentary of him in recent months.

“The first thing I’d do is change the captain,” Keane said back in 2024.

“Bruno Fernandes is not captain material. He’s moaning all the time. He’s the complete opposite to what a captain should be for me.”

7. David De Gea

Keane was also particularly harsh on De Gea towards the end of his time at Old Trafford.

“I am sick to death of this goalkeeper,” Keane said in 2020 when United were trailing at half-time against Tottenham.

“I would be fighting him at halftime, there is no getting away from that. I would be swinging punches at that guy.

“This is a standard save for an established international goalkeeper. I am flabbergasted.

“I wouldn’t even let them back on the bus after the match, let them get a taxi back to Manchester. These are established international players.”

Given United’s goalkeeping struggles since De Gea has left the club, Keane has somewhat softened on the Spaniard and jokingly said it was a “huge mistake letting him go” after Andre Onana had made a series of errors.

6. Patrick Vieira

Keane’s rivalry with Vieira was legendary back in the day, but the pair seemed to have grown to like one another.

Since retiring, they’ve done various bits of punditry and television together and seem to have smoothed their relationship over from the fierce early 2000s.

“I certainly enjoyed the clashes,” Keane said on the Overlap episode with Vieira.

“The battles I had with you Patrick, I think were pretty honest battles; there was nothing sneaky about it.”

5. Michael Carrick’s wife

After United were beaten by Olympiacos in the Champions League back in 2014, Carrick was on press duty and was understandably downbeat.

Keane, however, didn’t like the tone of the interview and said: “That interview was just like their performance, flat.

Following Keane’s comments on ITV, Carrick’s wife, Lisa Roughead, took to social media to have a swipe at the pundit.

“‘Roy Keane what a c***, says anything to provoke a reaction,” Roughead wrote on social media before soon deleting the post.

Keane has seemingly never let that go, as he couldn’t resist having a dig at her following the announcement that Carrick would be taking over at United until the end of the season.

“His wife can always come in [if Carrick doesn’t do well], cause she’s got a bit of a big mouth sometimes. She’s probably doing the team talk,” Keane said on the latest episode of Stick to Football.

4. Alan Shearer

Keane was shown a straight red card when he famously clashed with Shearer back in 2001.

Over two decades later and the Irishman still holds a grudge over the former Newcastle star to this day.

“People used to annoy me,” Keane said on Stick to Football last year.

“One in particular, yeah, and he [Shearer] still annoys me.

“Shearer was sneaky, sneaky elbows. I didn’t admire people who were nasty, I don’t like nasty people. He was nasty, with sneaky elbows in the back of the head.”

There’s certainly no love lost between the pair as Shearer himself isn’t exactly the biggest Roy Keane fan.

“Yeah, I didn’t like him,” Shearer said on the Match of the Day podcast in 2021.

“I had loads of rucks with him and I wasn’t the only one.

“He got the red card and I remember having a little smile and thought ‘I’ve done you a kipper here. I can’t believe you’ve fallen into that little trap.’”

3. Alf-Inge Haaland

The rivalry between these two began in 1997 when Keane attempted to challenge Haaland, but instead suffered a nasty ligament injury.

At the time, Haaland accused Keane of faking an injury, which the midfielder never forgot.

They clashed again in 2001, but this time it was Haaland who came off worse from a horror challenge from Keane.

Keane was shown a straight red card for the challenge, after which he reportedly said: “Take that, you c***. And don’t ever stand over me again sneering about fake injuries.”

As a result of the challenge, Haaland never played a full 90 minutes ever again before he announced his retirement in 2003.

Keane has since insisted that he only wanted to ‘hurt’ Haaland and didn’t intend to injure him like he had done.

The rivalry between the pair has continued to bubble on, particularly since Alf-Inhge’s son, Erling Haaland, has been making waves in the Premier League.

Back in 2024, when commenting on Erling Haaland, Keane said: “He’s almost like a League Two player – that’s the way I look at him. His general play has to improve.”

Haaland junior is one of the few football figures to publicly stand up to Keane in response.

2. Mick McCarthy

Keane’s fallout with McCarthy was so infamous that they’ve made a film about it, which releases this month.

The pair clashed on the Pacific island of Saipan just days before the 2002 World Cup, resulting in McCarthy sending Keane home from the team’s training camp.

“The hangups I had with Ireland had gone on for many years about the way we prepared for games,” Keane said on Stick to Football.

“The tipping point was the 2002 World Cup. I showed my frustration, but that doesn’t mean to say I wouldn’t turn up and do the business in a game.

“People missed the point with me leaving the World Cup.

“Mick McCarthy was very much in bed with the Irish media – which is another story. Mick also questioned me then – I’d been asked by a reporter if I respected Mick, and I said no, I didn’t.

“Mick pulled me to the side and said ‘if you don’t respect me, how can you play for me?’ I thought that I wasn’t playing for him –I was playing for my country.

“But I said to him ‘alright, I won’t [play].’ I walked out of the team meeting – no regrets about it.”

1. Sir Alex Ferguson

Keane and Ferguson made one hell of a combination during their prime, but the former Republic of Ireland international still holds a vendetta against the Scotsman today.

Unhappy with the manner of his departure from Old Trafford, Keane still revels when he gets a chance to have a jibe at the 84-year-old.

Indeed, the other week he claimed that Ferguson was hanging around Old Trafford “like a bad smell” when discussing his interference with the club.

This is a vendetta between the pair which is highly personal and will likely never be resolved.

“I remember having conversations about loyalty when I was at the club. I don’t think he knows the meaning of the word,” Keane told ITV back in 2013 when Ferguson had criticised the midfielder in his book.

It’s safe to say that the pair aren’t on speaking terms today.