Former Manchester United star Gabriel Heinze has claimed that he was once sparked out by skipper Roy Keane shortly after arriving at the club.
The defender joined United back in 2004 after being signed from Paris Saint Germain, and spent three years at the club before later leaving for Real Madrid in 2007. Heinze became United's first choice left-back until Patrice Evra later took over.
Keane was the captain at the time, and it's fair to say that he wasn't a stranger to having altercations with team-mates and opposition players during his career. And the Irishman allegedly knocked out Heinze shortly after the defender joined the club as his respect was tested by Keane.
In a hilarious interview with boyhood club Newell's Old Boys, Heinze opened up on when he first joined United, and also when he first met Keane. Heinze barely spoke English at the time, and also wasn't aware of just how serious his new captain was.
Heinze said: "The first thing you hear in English or in another language are bad words. He (Keane) was looking at me and he says to me: "F*** off!" And I knew that was a dirty word.
"I stood up and the guy comes over to me. C'mon, I was only a kid. So I repeated it back to him, I said "f*** off you!. Then I don't remember anything else..."
It didn't seem like there was any hatred between the two, and the opening blow was the first and last time the pair clashed. But the same can't be said for Keane's relationship with former goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel.
Keane wore his heart on his sleeve, and wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty if he felt the need. And Keane opened up about a fight he had with Schmeichel in the team hotel which took place in front of the legendary Bobby Charlton.
“When I was injured and I came back Peter didn’t want to give me the captaincy so there was a bit of tension between us,” Keane told the Overlap Live. Good tension. We don’t like each other but I’m glad you’re my goalkeeper, you know what I mean.
“We were on pre-season, drinking as usual until three or four in the morning I said something to Peter and he was waiting for me outside of the room. I went back to Nicky Butt’s room for a club sandwich, really exciting stuff. There was no women or heroin, it was a club sandwich.
“I came out of the room and Peter’s waiting and he says ‘I’ve had enough of you!’. I remember I was coming round and I was thinking ‘you’ve had enough of me? Let’s get it on’. Obviously we had a fight. It seemed like ages, but I’m guessing it was like two or three minutes.
“Ferguson pulled us when we got back to Manchester; he was mad and said ‘the two of you are a disgrace to the club and you’re going to get fined’. He says Sir Bobby Charlton was on the same floor as us and said we were a disgrace, I was thinking ‘he could have broke the fight up!’“
