Roy Keane wanted David Healy to replicate his Northern Ireland performances during their brief spell together at the Black Cats
Roy Keane has never been shy in offering up his opinion with the former Manchester United captain renowned for his straight talking.
There have been quite a few players and managers down the years who have felt the wrath of the Cork native’s tongue as he moved from the football pitch to the pundit’s arena.
David Healy was a player who was well-known to Keane with the Linfield boss coming through the ranks at Old Trafford when the Republic of Ireland midfielder was in his pomp.
But their paths were to cross again when Keane made the step into management when he signed the striker for Sunderland in August 2008.
Healy cost the Black Cats £1.2m but the move never really worked out for either party as the frontman only played 13 times for the Wearside outfit never starting a league game for them.
Despite his club form Healy was still playing a leading role for Northern Ireland and speaking on the latest episode of the ‘Give My Head’ Podcast he recalled how Keane tried to gee him up to get the best out of him.
“He said to me one night in his strong Cork accent: ‘You need to start running about like a madman like you do for the North’.
“I goes ‘yes I get that Roy, I’m trying’. So he says ‘how are we going to do this? How about wearing your Northern Ireland shirt under your Sunderland shirt?’.
“I didn’t have my best time at Sunderland and Roy was trying to come up with ideas of how I could score at the time.
“He said: ‘Well you run about like a madman for the North try and run about like a madman for me please would ya?’.”
The pair only had a brief spell together at the Stadium of Light as Keane stood down from his position at the club in December 2008 after a poor run of results after leading Sunderland back to the Premier League.
Healy said he would love to see Keane back in the game again with his old club Manchester United, one team he could shake up.
“We got on well. He is straight to the point and in my personal opinion I think he is lost to the game in terms of what he can offer in terms of a coach and a manager,” added Healy.
“I think I did recently see that he had mentioned that if you put him into the Man United dressing room he would soon sort them out.
“I know he’s never been given the opportunity, I would imagine there’s quite a few in the Man United dressing room who he has been outspoken about, who are thinking ‘please do not give this to Roy’, because there’s a shake-up and then there’s a shake-up. Roy has that to be straight to the point.”
#Roy #Keanes #madman #request #David #Healy #firing #Sunderland #spell
