Roy Keane has delivered an explosive attack on Ronald Koeman as the club v country row between Ireland and Everton boiled over.
James McCarthy’s non availability for Ireland’s match in Austria was the cause of the outburst with relations between club and country tense for a while.
The Glasgow born midfielder has missed Everton’s last three matches due to a hamstring injury but Keane claimed that there is a big difference between being injured and being doubtful.
International managers generally take a passive role hoping to keep some sort of relationship with club bosses but the strained relationship with Everton has clearly been praying on Keane’s mind.
Responding to Koeman’s claim that Ireland had taken risks with the fitness of players Keane said: “I think Koeman could not be further from the truth. I look at Everton and maybe Everton have to toughen up. They get lots of injuries with players who are not playing international football so they might have a look at themselves at club level.
“I think sometimes as a coach or a manager at a club like Everton, you’d want players playing lots of matches because that’s down to being successful. Remind me, when did Everton last win a trophy?”
Keane was on the receiving end of Everton’s last trophy win when a Paul Rideout goal denied Manchester United the 1995 FA Cup.
“I was out there, yeah, and they were the luckiest team on the planet that day,” Keane added according to The Examiner. “They bloody were! We missed about 10 chances.”
“A club like Everton — if you are a half decent club — then, my God, you expect your players to be going away playing international football because you would like to think that is the status of your club.
“When I was manager of Sunderland and lads were going away for internationals, I was delighted. Possibly glad to see the back of them for a few days as well but delighted that they were representing their countries and representing the club. That’s what you want.
“Do Real Madrid and Barcelona get upset when their players travel? Manchester United? At clubs like that you expect your players to be going on international duty. If it’s international week and you are at your club with 20 players staying behind, you’re going: ‘My God, we are struggling’.
“We have had a problem previously with (former Everton manager Roberto) Martinez — I think he was slightly over the top. Every time, we felt, the Everton players were turning up — and this is not a criticism of the players, this is more from Everton and their staff — they were always carrying knocks.
“I always felt the Everton players were going to turn up on crutches or crawling in the hotel door, and now it looks like we are probably going to have that issue again with Koeman. I hope not.”
Keane can be relied upon to express what other international managers are thinking.
The one time Celtic midfielder has expressed a wish to get back into club management after stints at Sunderland and Ipswich but that seems less likely than ever.
It came as a shock when Keane paired up with Martin O’Neill in international management, with his criticism of club managers it seems that taking over from O’Neill will be Keane’s most likely route into management.
Keane was in contention for the managers job at Celtic in 2014 before the board opted for Ronny Deila.
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