Luke Chadwick has recalled his 'terrifying' first encounter with Roy Keane during a Manchester United training session.
Chadwick came through the youth ranks at United in the late 1990's, making his first-team debut in the 1999 League Cup defeat against Aston Villa. A promising and versatile midfielder, the Cambridge-born talent had the unenviable task of displacing one of Keane, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs or David Beckham at Old Trafford.
And that intimidating task came to the fore during his first training session with the first-team in which he was involved with the very stars who months earlier had just won that infamous treble.
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"I remember my first training session with the first team," Chadwick told FourFourTwo. "I was on Roy’s team, and I gave the ball away a couple of times. He told me in no uncertain terms that my performance wasn’t up to standard.
"I was thinking, ‘F**k, I’ve blown it now’. When we went inside after training, I expected another bollocking from him – I was so nervous.
"But he pulled me to one side and explained that there was a level he expected of all of us, and it was his job to make sure we were at it every day. It didn’t matter if it was me, Ryan Giggs or David Beckham; he said he’d speak to everyone in the same way if standards weren’t right.
"He was intimidating – terrifying, even – but he was the ultimate captain. He would be so supportive during games. He looked out for us on the pitch. If we gave everything, then he would fight for every last one of us."
Chadwick played 25 times for United in Premier League between 1999 and 2004, a four-year period that also saw him loaned out to Royal Antwerp, Reading and Burnley. The midfielder joined West Ham on a permanent deal in 2006 before working his way down the Football League and ending up returning to Cambridge United.
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