Peter Schmeichel shares what really irritates him about infamous Roy Keane scrap
Peter Schmeichel and Roy Keane were two huge figures in the Manchester United dressing room under legendary Sir Alex Ferguson and they often clashed during the club's period of dominance
by David Anderson · The MirrorPeter Schmeichel has lifted the lid on his fiery relationship with Roy Keane at Manchester United, revealing they once brawled in the early hours of the morning in a hotel corridor in Singapore.
Schmeichel and Keane were two huge figures at United in the 1990s and the Dane says they were constantly clashing. Schmeichel spoke about their scrap to former United team-mate Gary Neville in Sky Bet’s Stick to Football podcast and is irritated everyone has overblown the incident.
The former goalkeeper says rows were common place in that United squad because they were all so committed to winning. “You can take any footballer who has been in situations like that, and I don’t see that as important,” he told the Stick to Football podcast.
“It irritates me that things like that are brought up sometimes because it’s so irrelevant. It goes back to the same thing. We were those kind of people back then and would do anything to win.
“It kept you in a certain mentality. Then you start playing and you become like that. There’s no way I can be like this now, it’s too much energy. We were in Tokyo the next day and I had to do a press conference, and it was funny. I had a little scar, and the media asked where I got that from.
“Roy hurt me. They thought I was taking the p***, but it was just funny that we had to do that the next day.” Keane is unapologetic about his behaviour and says there was an edge to everyone in the squad.
“There was a big edge to everybody,” he said. “There were big personalities, and we were all trying to win. There was an edge to the training ground, to training, the boxes, the possession, the running. There was always that edge. Players and the manager wanted to win.
“The training led to arguments, disagreements and fights, but it was all a part of the package. It’s what made Manchester United and there was energy. If you went to Manchester United’s training ground, we would always get stuck into each other and it was constant. Something could always go off.”
Keane claims Schmeichel refused to hand back the captaincy in pre-season in 1998 when he returned from a serious knee injury. “I was coming back from a crucial period and Peter Schmeichel was reluctant to give back the captaincy, which added another level to it,” he said.
“We were playing in Denmark and the manager said that he would leave it with Peter because he was in his hometown. Then we played the Charity Shield, and you had a go after the match.
“I got the captaincy back in the end and that was it, but it was just the personalities. I just thought Peter would say that I was back after an injury and I could have my captaincy back, but he was reluctant.”
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