Former Arsenal and Manchester United defender Gabriel Heinze is set to join the former’s coaching staff under Mikel Arteta. Per The Athletic, the Argentine is set to replace Carlos Cuesta, who departed London to become Parma’s new head coach.
Arteta and Heinze, 47, were teammates at Paris Saint-Germain during the 2001/02 campaign – and now they are set to join forces on the other side of the white line. All in good time, whether his appointment will boost the north Londoners remains to be seen.
During Heinze’s playing days, he won plenty of silverware with the two Premier League sides – but that didn’t stop him from getting into an altercation with Roy Keane, who is widely regarded as one of the hardest footballers of the Premier League era.
Gabriel Heinze’s Bust-Up With Roy Keane Recalled
Midfielder-turned-pundit Keane had an uncanny knack of enjoying the dirty side of the game – just ask Patrick Vieira, an Arsenal midfielder who went to battle with the Irishman on tens of occasions. But he also fell out with teammates too.
That is the case for Heinze, who played 36 times alongside Keane after moving to Old Trafford in 2004, and he once recalled a story of the two butting heads after defeat. Speaking to ESPN Argentina’s ‘Pura Quimica’ in 2017, he said:
"We ended up losing 2-1. The team was disastrous. To be honest, I thought I had not played that badly. I'm the first one off the pitch when a game ends because I don't like to talk to anyone. I went straight to the changing room - I was the first in and Roy was next. I didn't speak much English then."
He continued: "I see that he [Keane] is staring at me and he says 'f--- off.' I knew that swear word because those are the first things you learn. He comes towards me and I tell him 'f--- off you,' and that is the last thing I remember. I didn't even have time to swing my arm..."