Football
Kevin Palmer 9y

Roy Keane says he profited from Glazers sale, hits out at Class of '92

Roy Keane has revealed in his latest book that he profited from the controversial takeover of Manchester United by Malcolm Glazer and his family in 2005, clarified his infamous clash with Alf Inge Haaland, and criticised the closed clique that was United's Class of '92.

Several United players had been given shares in the Old Trafford club as part of their contracts and were able to cash those in when the takeover was completed, with then-United captain Keane apparently unconcerned by unpopularity of the club's new owners among many supporters.

"From the players' point of view, it didn't bother us too much," Keane wrote in his new book. "I had a few shares in the club as part of my contract. So the Glazers coming in was worth a few bob to me."

Meanwhile, Keane has attempted to provide some clarification on his clash with Manchester City player Haaland back in 2001, which saw the then-United skipper red carded for a tackle that he later hinted was a premeditated attack on a player who taunted him on the field after he damaged knee ligaments in September 1997.

"I wanted to hurt him and stand over him and go: 'Take that, you c---.' I don't regret that. But I had no wish to injure him," writes Keane, who was fined by the FA after hinting in his first book back in 2002 that his challenge on Haaland had been a premeditated attempt to cause injury.

"It was action; it was football. It was dog eats dog. I've kicked lots of players and I know the difference between hurting somebody and injuring somebody. I didn't go to injure Haaland. When you play sport, you know how to injure somebody.

"There was no premeditation. I'd played against Haaland three or four times between the game against Leeds, in 1997, when I injured my cruciate and the game when I tackled him, in 2001, when he was playing for Manchester City. If I'd been this madman out for revenge, why would I have waited years for an opportunity to injure him?

"Was I going around for years thinking: 'I'm going to get him, I'm going to get him?' No. Was he at the back of my mind? Of course he was. Like Rob Lee was, like David Batty was, like Alan Shearer was, like Patrick Vieira was. All these players were in the back of my mind: 'If I get a chance I'm going to f------ hit you, of course I am.'

"Haaland finished the game and played four days later, for Norway. A couple of years later he tried to claim that he'd had to retire because of the tackle. He was going to sue me. It was a bad tackle but he was still able to play four days later."

Keane also offered up a less-than flattering appraisal of United's Class of '92, the youth team that included the likes of David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers, as he suggested their influence on the club has been over-hyped.

"The Class of '92 - all good players, but their role at the club has become exaggerated," he stated. "The 'Class of '92' seems to have grown its own legs; it has become a brand. It's as if they were a team away from the team, and they're not shy of plugging into it.

"We all had the same aims -- we all had the hunger. Scholesy was a top, top player. But I still don't fall for that boy-next-door image, or that he's dead humble. He has more of an edge to him. Everyone thinks he lives in a council flat."

Leaks from Keane's book, entitled "The Second Half" were unexpectedly made public on Monday amid reports that a supermarket in Manchester had put the autobiography on sale three days before its official release date in error.

The publishers of the book had hoped to keep its contents secret until it was released and had resisted the temptation to agree to a lucrative newspaper serialisation deal, despite the concerted efforts of several major newspapers in the UK and Ireland to get advanced deals to publish sections of the book.

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