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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Josh O'Brien

Shades of Roy Keane as MUTV pundit Lou Macari slams Adrien Rabiot

When appearing on in-house club media, it is widely expected that you toe the company line and avoid rocking the boat in fear of bringing embarrassment upon the team you are representing.

This is particularly true of Manchester United's in house channel MUTV, who tend to view issues with red tinted glasses on. Lou Macari however, decided to go in a completely different direction when he appeared on MUTV this week, slamming Manchester United's decision to pursue French midfielder Adrien Rabiot.

"I'd never really heard of him," said the United legend.

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"Clubs spend millions of pounds scouting players across Europe, but nobody else has made a move for this fella. Why do you think this is? I have got a bad feeling about the guy."

Rabiot is a divisive figure due to some of his previous misdemeanours and off-field conduct, but with just under 300 combined club appearances for Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus, his talent is hardly up for debate.

United view Rabiot as an alternative to their main midfield target Frenkie de Jong, who looks increasingly likely to remain at Barcelona this summer.

Macari isn't the first person to speak their mind on MUTV and go against the party line. The most famous example of this, of course, comes in the form of Roy Keane's explosive outburst when the Manchester United icon was asked by MUTV to analyse the performance of his teammates.

In the months leading up to Keane's eventual Old Trafford exit in late 2005, tensions had slowly been rising between the Irishman and then-manager Sir Alex Ferguson. However, things reached the point of no return when the midfielder gave his in-house interview, which was so brutal that the club destroyed it to ensure it never made it to air.

This only added to its notoriety. Keane was asked to review United's dismal 4-1 defeat by Middlesbrough as part of a 'Roy Keane plays the pundit segment', but few could have predicted just how scathing the then-Red Devils skipper would be.

Analysing Rio Ferdinand's part to play in the second goal, Keane said: "I have seen that happen to Rio before [after Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink robbed Ferdinand for the second goal]. It is poor defending. Just because you are paid £120,000 a week and play well for 20 minutes against Tottenham, you think you are a superstar."

Keane did not hold back when it came to Darren Fletcher, either, adding: "I can't understand why people in Scotland rave about Darren Fletcher." Elsewhere, he remarked on Alan Smith: "What is he doing there? He is wandering around as if he is lost. He doesn't know what he is doing."

As a result of his comments, Keane was fined £5,000 and never donned the United shirt again. It marked the dramatic end of his partnership with Ferguson that helped propel United to the very top of English football and keep them there for more than a decade.

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