Jason McAteer, a former Liverpool midfielder, has expressed his willingness to end his long-standing feud with Roy Keane, who used to play for Manchester United. However, he confessed that he felt “disappointed” by a recent comment from the ex-United midfielder.
McAteer and Keane played together for the Republic of Ireland at the international level, but they had a falling out with the then-manager Mick McCarthy before the 2002 World Cup. They also clashed on the field during a match between Sunderland and the Red Devils at the Stadium of Light, where Keane was shown a red card for elbowing McAteer.
“He come in, me and him had it in the middle of the park – I ran off him for the equaliser which I don’t think he liked. I remember smashing one from 30 yards and the ‘keeper saved it, it went off in the middle of the park, I pulled him back and he elbowed me.
“He was telling me he was going to rip my head off, this and that, and I just give him that (speaking hand gesture). He said something and I just said: ‘put it in your next book, I’m sure I’ll read about it d*******’.
“He calms down, waits until the last 30 seconds of the game and goes bosh and elbows me on the head. He tried to be clever a few weeks ago and said I deserved it and (that) I was never his teammate, which upset me because we’re 20 years on,” he added.
“We landed in Saipan and we all had jetlag, we ended up walking down the beach and done it two or three nights, it was the most we ever spoke and he opened up. I enjoyed his company, he’s alright, I bumped into him in restaurants around here, he will not let on, as if he doesn’t know me.
“I was disappointed with what he said the other week about not being teammates and I deserved being elbowed. At the end of the day, if anyone done it in the street, they’d go to prison, it’s assault, he shouldn’t have done it, at the end of the day coming out and being the big I am with it is not a nice thing to do, move on. I’ve stoked the fire myself over the years, if he wants to patch it up he knows where I am.”