Wayne Rooney and Roy Keane
Wayne Rooney and Roy Keane had a minor bust up in their United days
Roy Keane and Wayne Rooney enjoyed a solid relationship with one another during their time at Manchester United – but their friendship was forged after a tense stand-off.
Keane and Rooney played together at Old Trafford for just over a season and the iconic Scouse striker once revealed that a minor spat, in which Keane instructed Rooney to go "f*** himself", was what ultimately sealed a mutual respect between the pair. The incident in question occurred on an evening before United faced Newcastle in a Premier League clash back in 2004.
The Red Devils had checked into a North East based hotel on the Friday night ahead of the Saturday fixture. The squad were relaxing in front of the TV for the evening and enjoying a meal when things were about to get out of hand.
Former United captain Keane decided that he wanted to watch rugby. After briefly leaving the room, Keane returned to sit down, relax and enjoy the game, only for the fiery midfielder to realise that a prankster among the United cabal, Rooney, had switched the TV channel and confiscated the remote control.
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Recalling the incident in his 2014 autobiography, The Second Half, Keane said: "We were in a hotel, the Friday night before a game – I forget where. The team would always sit down and have a meal together. There was a big TV in the room.
"I was into rugby league, and there was a big game on. I went to the toilet, came back and someone had changed the channel to something stupid. I can't remember what it was. A few of the players were sitting there, giggling away.
"I said, 'where's the rugby league?' I knew Wayne was up to something. I said, 'where's the remote control?' He said, 'I don't know.' I said, 'you f****** do'. I didn't exactly storm out, but I couldn't be bothered trying to get the remote control back, so I decided I'd watch the rest of the match up in my room.
"I came down the next morning for the pre-match meal and Wayne was brave enough to come up to me. 'Did you ever find the remote control, Roy?' I think I told him to go and f*** himself. It was the only disagreement I ever had with him."
Keane and Rooney's minor spat at United was discussed in the former's autobiography ( Image: EMPICS Sport)
Keane's prognosis of Rooney being "brave" enough to confront him was perhaps the lightning rod for the two stars to get on better footing with one another, and Rooney later agreed. The ex-Everton striker remembered the incident in similar fashion, claiming that their face-off was in fact for positive for their relationship as he believes Keane gained respect for him following the event.
Telling his version of events in 2018, Rooney said: "I always remember my first away trip, having that argument with Roy Keane. We were watching the rugby before we were playing Newcastle away.
"He went to get some food, so I put X-Factor on and hid the remote. He wasn't happy about it and we had an argument. But I think straight away, he respected me more for standing up to him."
Keane left United shortly after the incident in 2005 to join Celtic after winning seven Premier League titles, four FA Cups and a Champions League under Sir Alex Ferguson. Rooney went on to represent the Red Devils until 2017 and left the club as United's all-time top scorer, complete with five top-flight titles, three League Cups and a Champions League.
The pair now regularly appear on Sky Sports' The Overlap podcast together alongside former United team-mates Gary Neville and Paul Scholes.
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