Agbonlahor lists shortfalls of Sunderland target Keane

 

Former England international Gabriel Agbonlahor has lampooned Sunderland target Roy Keane accusing the former Aston Villa of being disrespectful to players.

Sunderland plans to interview Keane about their managerial vacancy  13 years after he resigned and 11 years since his last job as boss.

Keane joined Aston Villa in July 2014 as an assistant manager under Paul Lambert he stayed in the role for just four months before dropping out to focus on the same position he held with the Republic of Ireland.

Agbonlahor who was eligible to play for either Nigeria or Scotland but chose to settle for England during his player days told talkSPORT“The problem with Roy Keane when he came to Aston Villa was that he didn’t understand that we weren’t very good with the players he played with.

“He couldn’t accept that we weren’t as good as Giggs, Scholes, Beckham and those players and his coaching style was not the right method for players today and players when he was at Aston Villa.

“And the way he spoke to players. There were times when there were experienced players like Joe Cole and he just didn’t address them well.

“He spoke to them in a way that was disrespectful. His man management was a zero out of 100, it was that bad.’

Agbonlahor revealed a time in training when the pair had a heated moment after target practice.

The former Aston Villa forward claims Keane left the club just a day after the incident  assuming he played a part in his departure.

He said: “There was a time in training when we did this target practice, so imagine all 22 players are doing a target practice and you have to pass it to five different people, stake it wide and then make a cross.

“You won’t have a chance for 11 or 12 minutes  you’ll get cold, you’ll feel like you need more shots and the standard wasn’t very good.

‘The gaffa Paul Lambert says ‘This is not good enough, the standards are not good enough’ so I as captain came forward and supported the players and said ‘Well gaffa, you know we only get one shot out of ten or 11 minutes, so we have to do something else”.’

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Roy Keane came up and said ‘oh are you cold do you need another warm up’ and I kind of said ‘I’m not talking to you Roy, I’m talking to the manager’.

“He gave me that angry look and he left the next day. So I think he left Aston Villa at the time because of me.”