I’m the only player to get one over Manchester United legend Roy Keane – that’s why he dug me out

Jon Walters has opened up on his frosty relationship with Roy Keane – insisting the Manchester United legend hated the fact he got under his skin.

Walters played under Keane at Ipswich, and later again at Ireland when the 52-year-old was assistant manager of the national team.

Keane and Walters worked together twice – first at Ipswich and then with IrelandCredit: Getty
The former striker was Keane’s star man while at Ipswich, functioning as both his captain and top scorer before leaving for the Premier League and Stoke City in 2010.

That departure saw the two spectacularly fall out, and Keane later publicly criticised the now-retired forward.

The renowned pundit said Walters ‘demanded to leave Ipswich’ and joked about the striker ‘doing a lot of talking’, adding ‘imagine if he’d won a trophy!’

Keane made those comments at an ‘Off The Ball’ appearance in 2019, and Walters has now taken a look back while speaking to talkSPORT.

“I left Ipswich, and I was captain at the time, and I think it goes back to that,” he explained. “I got on with him well, not best of buddies, but got on well, I left and we had a well documented fall out.

“That clip was a bit low, it was on the back of me doing an emotional interview and he commented on a few things.

“So when I go into detail on what happened, and when people make things up, just make sure there’s no evidence to the contrary, that’s all I’ll say.”

Asked why he thinks the Red Devils icon has a problem with him, Walters gave his theory for the first time.

Walters went on to bigger and better things at StokeCredit: Getty

Walters told talkSPORT why he thinks it got personal
He said: “I don’t think anyone has ever got one over on Roy Keane as a player, as a teammate or as a player under him.

“I think that’s the only time that’s happened to him, when I was at Ipswich and he’s tried to make out I didn’t, and that’s what you shouldn’t lie about, the truth will always come out.

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“When the time’s right the truth will come out. At some point I might go through my career and do a book and it will be a story that no one knows anything about, it will be a story that no other player has gone through, I can guarantee that. I will respond at some point.

“After I left Ipswich we were fine with Ireland until he brought everything up again.

“The Irish stuff was ridiculous, he was the assistant manager of a national team, you’re preparing for a game in France, and that was wrong.

“He came back with that because I’m the only player who ever got one over on him, not just once but twice, and he knows it, and that’s probably what annoys him.”