GLASGOW, UNITED KINGDOM – FEBRUARY 12: Rangers’ Dado Prso challenges Celtic’s Roy Keane during the Rangers vs. Celtic Scottish Premier League match at Ibrox Stadium on February 12, 2006 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Image via Getty Images / Jeff J Mitchell)
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The amazing tale of former Rangers goalkeeper Andy Goram being passed over by Roy Keane during his brief tenure at Old Trafford, a star player for Manchester United.A major player at Ibrox in the 1999s, Goram was a product of the stadium’s atmosphere and support system. It is evident that Ireland captain Keane did not recognize the former Scotland internationalist when Sir Alex Ferguson signed him in 2001.
In a 2019 interview with the Anything Goes podcast, Goram discussed the tense relationship the two had in the Old Trafford locker room.
We simply never had a conversation. There was nothing between us. My beliefs and his beliefs are completely different.
“Steve McClaren showed me around the dressing room, where I got to know all the players.” I played cricket with the Neville family, so I knew most of them.
Roy Keane was the recipient of it, and you know, you shake hands. He simply glanced at me, and I thought, “Is there really any point?” And he responded, “no.” And for three months, we didn’t communicate.
In his autobiography, Goram went into a more detailed explanation about the experience with Keane and how their polar opposite beliefs led to them not exchange a civil word in their time together under Ferguson.
“Shark’s eyes. Dead, devoid of emotion, glaring at me. No handshake. Welcome to Manchester United. Roy Keane-style.
“The man who saw himself as the heartbeat of the Reds was giving me a message. He just looked right through me as the embarrassed Steve McClaren, the United No 2, tried to introduce the new on-loan keeper to his volcanic captain.
“From that second I knew there was no point in me making an effort with Keane. Roy had things he stood by, things that framed his life, beliefs he clung to with a burning intensity. Well, I had mine. What he did to me on that first morning at work at the most famous football club in the world didn’t faze me.
“He was a Celtic man, I was a Rangers man. He didn’t like me. End of story. Fair enough. After all, I’d done enough to make some Celtic fans dislike me in seven years at Ibrox.
“There was to be no handshake. Ever. The truth is we didn’t exchange a civil word in the three months I was at Old Trafford.”
Goram, who died in 2022, would leave Rangers at the end of the 1997/98 season after Wim Jansen’s side won the league and stopped the ten. Meanwhile, Keane would go on to retire at Celtic, albeit in an injury hit spell with the Scottish Champions.
Keane made just 13 appearances for Celtic, scoring once before he was forced to retire. It is a shame that fans were only limited to such a small amount of games watching Keane as games like this showcase how good a player he still was, even if he was in the twilight of his career. Keane would help Celtic complete a double that season with the League Cup and League, his last as a player.
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