Manchester United icon Roy Keane has explained why his stint with Aston Villa didn't work out.
The former Reds skipper in 2014 spent time assisting Paul Lambert at Villa Park while also fulfilling a similar role with Republic of Ireland. But the extra commitments didn't pan out in the way Keane would have liked, lasting just five months.
"The one reason I went to Villa was because it was a Premier League job. I was coaching with Ireland so I wanted to keep learning," he told Gary Neville's podcast The Overlap, posted in 2021. "But I didn’t like the group of players.
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"I kept my guard up a little bit because I thought I’m not losing it with players. Every club will have one or two, but I thought Villa had six or seven lads who I couldn’t take.
"Some of it was behaviour; attitude to training, late for training. When I left I just wanted to focus on Ireland. I was thinking, is it me? The players I’ve fallen out with, I follow their careers really closely in case maybe I got it wrong.
"They do nothing. Same with a couple of lads I fell out with - with Ireland, they do nothing in their careers. Not that I fell out with anyone at Villa, I just couldn’t be bothered with them."
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