“Shark eyes. Dead, emotionless, glaring at me. No handshake.”
Rangers legend Andy Goram has opened up about his time with captain Roy Keane during his brief spell at Manchester United. In March 2001, the Red Devils signed the former Rangers goalkeeper from Motherwell on a short-term loan.
With first-team goalkeepers Fabian Barthez and Raymond van der Gou injured, Alex Ferguson needs cover. However, Goram knew immediately that he and Keane would not see eye to eye. Goram died in 2022 at the age of 58.
Andy Goram's introduction to Roy Keane.
The former goalkeeper believes Keane, a Celtic fan who later played for the club, did not want to speak to him because of Goram's strong links with Rangers.
Gorham played for Ibrox between 1991 and 1998 and is voted Rangers' greatest ever goalkeeper.
He won five Scottish Championships and three Scottish Cups and was named Player of the Year in 1993.
“We just never spoke. We had nothing in common. His beliefs and mine were so far apart,” Goram said of Keane on the Anything Goes podcast in 2019.
“I met all the players in the dressing room and Steve McLaren showed me around. I knew most of them, the Nevilles and so on, I played cricket with their dad.
“It got to Roy Keane and you know, you shake hands. He just looked at me and I asked: 'That doesn't make sense does it?' “He said, 'No.' We haven't spoken in three months.”
Goram went into further detail about his interactions with Keane in his autobiography. The Rangers legend says the Manchester United skipper “hates” seeing him at Old Trafford.
“Shark eyes. Dead, emotionless, glaring at me. No handshake. Welcome to Manchester United. Roy Keane style,” Goram wrote in his autobiography.
“The man who sees himself as the heartbeat of the Reds is sending me a message. When embarrassed Manchester United number two Steve McClaren tried to introduce the new on-loan goalkeeper to his Volcano captain, he just saw right through it. I.
“From that moment on, I knew there was no point in me and Keane trying together. Roy had things that he stood for, things that shaped his life, beliefs that he held on to strongly. Well, I had mine. . What he did to me on my first morning at the most famous football club in the world didn't bother me at all.
“He was a Celtic player and I was a Rangers player. He didn't like me. End of story. Fair enough. After all, in seven years at Ibrox I did enough to make some Celtic The fans don't like me.
“There should never have been a handshake. Ever. In fact, in the three months I was at Old Trafford, we didn't have a polite word.”
Goram also told the Mirror he failed to pass the ball to Keane during a training ground row and told the Irishman to “fuck off”.
“Suddenly I was the target of a barrage of abuse from Keane,” Golam said.
“'Hey you, give me the ball,' he screamed. I replied, 'What, you got the ball just because you're Roy Keane? Fuck it.
“The atmosphere went ice cold from that moment and on the way off the pitch Gary Neville grabbed me. 'Goalkeeper,' he said, 'we don't talk to Roy like that here. We just don't do it. This is a telling insight for me. Of course I respect Keane as a player, but I can't do this.
“As far as I'm concerned, the way he talks to some players is very abnormal. A lot of people at Old Trafford are obviously scared of him.”
After leaving Manchester United in November 2005, Keane continued to play for Celtic.
Despite Goram's differences with Keane, United won a third successive Premier League title in 2001, with the Rangers legend making two appearances for Ferguson's side.
Goram died in July 2022, a few months after being diagnosed with advanced esophageal cancer.
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