Roy Keane once reached out to a former teammate in an attempt to get the goalkeeper into coaching.
Raimond van der Gouw spent most of his six years as a Manchester United player as a back-up keeper to the likes of of Peter Schmeichel and Fabien Barthez.
But he did make 60 appearances for the Red Devils and Keane clearly thought highly of the Dutchman as he offered him a coaching role when the Cork native was Sunderland manager.
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Van der Gouw told Four Four Two: "Roy contacted me to tell me that he'd been named Sunderland manager. He said, 'I've always thought that if I became a manager, I want you as my goalkeeping coach.
"At first I thought it was a prank, but soon I realised it was really Keane."
Van der Gouw rejected Keane's offer initially as he was still playing, but when his former skipper phoned again a year later, he decided to take the plunge.
He worked with Keane at Sunderland a year-and-a-half before later moving back to the Netherlands in 2009. He spent 11 years at Vitesse before joining Eredivisie giants PSV in 2020.
"It was nice to work with Roy again and I loved my time at Sunderland," Van der Gouw added. "I've been working as a goalkeeping coach ever since … I love it."
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