the end.
But I still don’t know exactly why it happened. If the manager thought I’d been out of line with the villa incident, or the interview, he surely could have said to me, quietly, ‘Look, Roy, be careful – you stepped out of line there, boy. You’re out of order.’ He’d done that before, when I’d been drinking or I’d been arrested, or after I’d committed a bad tackle, or when I’d chased the referee Andy D’Urso, There’d been times when he’d take me aside and say, ‘Hey, you fuckin’ crossed the line there’, and he’d have a go at me. I was his captain.
I think back to Portugal and I wonder ‘Was it that?’ The whole thing might have been a bit awkward, but I’d been looking after my family. It was no big deal. It was only a villa, the house we were going to stay in. As team captain, I’d always pushed for team spirit. Family get-togethers, the Christmas dos, match tickets for families – I’d sorted all that. Myself and my wife would go out of our way for any of the players, particularly the foreign lads.
Then there was pre-season, and Carlos not wanting me backafter I’d hurt my hamstring, and throwing the bib at me. Was I missing something? Did Carlos see me as some sort of threat? And, if so, did the manager feel he had to back him up? Carlos had been away at Real Madrid for a year, and then he came back. He might have felt that I was a bigger presence in the dressing room. But I didn’t go looking for that status; it comes with games, appearances, trophies. It just comes your way. But when Carlos came back, he might have felt, ‘Mmm, what’s this guy about?’ Even though I’d worked with him previously and got on well with him. But I was intelligent enough to know that if the manager felt that this was between myself and Carlos, then he’d have to back his number two.
I knew when I got into the argument with Carlos, when I said, ‘Do you make love to your wife in the same position?’, I knew he wouldn’t like it. To be honest, I didn’t use the words ‘make love’; I think I said, ‘When you shag your missis, do you change positions?’ I think some of the lads were going, ‘Fuckin’ hell, where did that one come from?’ In the heat of an argument, you go, ‘Here, you fucker—’, and say things you might not normally say. And why did I bring up the horse syndicate with the manager? I’d like to know. But I wasn’t going to sit back and be passive. You know – you fight your corner.
I’ve thought since that I should have insisted they show the interview on MUTV; I should have checked if I could do that, legally: ‘Show the video. ’Cos you’re tarnishing me. You’re making out I’ve said something really bad. And I haven’t.’
Apparently, I described Kieran Richardson as a lazy defender. But Kieran Richardson isn’t a defender. Some players, out of position, defend lazily; they don’t get back quickly enough. So the comment was taken out of context. I signed Kieran later, when I managed Sunderland. I was critical of Darren Fletcher. Apparently, I doubted why people in Scotland raved about him.
I might have said something like that, almost tongue in cheek. Sometimes you’re rated more highly in your own country than you are in any other. I always rated Darren and I used to push him. I think the lads I was really critical of were the ones I rated. ‘I think you’ve got a chance of being a top player – I think you could do better.’ There’s always a compliment in that. The players I didn’t want to speak about, they were the ones who should have been worried. I went to Old Trafford not long ago; United played Liverpool in the League Cup. The first player to walk over and shake my hand was Darren Fletcher. Darren knew that I would have backed him to the hilt.
A lot of the comments I’ve been expected to defend over the years, I’m not actually sure I made them. I’m supposed to have said about Rio Ferdinand, something like, ‘Just
But I still don’t know exactly why it happened. If the manager thought I’d been out of line with the villa incident, or the interview, he surely could have said to me, quietly, ‘Look, Roy, be careful – you stepped out of line there, boy. You’re out of order.’ He’d done that before, when I’d been drinking or I’d been arrested, or after I’d committed a bad tackle, or when I’d chased the referee Andy D’Urso, There’d been times when he’d take me aside and say, ‘Hey, you fuckin’ crossed the line there’, and he’d have a go at me. I was his captain.
I think back to Portugal and I wonder ‘Was it that?’ The whole thing might have been a bit awkward, but I’d been looking after my family. It was no big deal. It was only a villa, the house we were going to stay in. As team captain, I’d always pushed for team spirit. Family get-togethers, the Christmas dos, match tickets for families – I’d sorted all that. Myself and my wife would go out of our way for any of the players, particularly the foreign lads.
Then there was pre-season, and Carlos not wanting me backafter I’d hurt my hamstring, and throwing the bib at me. Was I missing something? Did Carlos see me as some sort of threat? And, if so, did the manager feel he had to back him up? Carlos had been away at Real Madrid for a year, and then he came back. He might have felt that I was a bigger presence in the dressing room. But I didn’t go looking for that status; it comes with games, appearances, trophies. It just comes your way. But when Carlos came back, he might have felt, ‘Mmm, what’s this guy about?’ Even though I’d worked with him previously and got on well with him. But I was intelligent enough to know that if the manager felt that this was between myself and Carlos, then he’d have to back his number two.
I knew when I got into the argument with Carlos, when I said, ‘Do you make love to your wife in the same position?’, I knew he wouldn’t like it. To be honest, I didn’t use the words ‘make love’; I think I said, ‘When you shag your missis, do you change positions?’ I think some of the lads were going, ‘Fuckin’ hell, where did that one come from?’ In the heat of an argument, you go, ‘Here, you fucker—’, and say things you might not normally say. And why did I bring up the horse syndicate with the manager? I’d like to know. But I wasn’t going to sit back and be passive. You know – you fight your corner.
I’ve thought since that I should have insisted they show the interview on MUTV; I should have checked if I could do that, legally: ‘Show the video. ’Cos you’re tarnishing me. You’re making out I’ve said something really bad. And I haven’t.’
Apparently, I described Kieran Richardson as a lazy defender. But Kieran Richardson isn’t a defender. Some players, out of position, defend lazily; they don’t get back quickly enough. So the comment was taken out of context. I signed Kieran later, when I managed Sunderland. I was critical of Darren Fletcher. Apparently, I doubted why people in Scotland raved about him.
I might have said something like that, almost tongue in cheek. Sometimes you’re rated more highly in your own country than you are in any other. I always rated Darren and I used to push him. I think the lads I was really critical of were the ones I rated. ‘I think you’ve got a chance of being a top player – I think you could do better.’ There’s always a compliment in that. The players I didn’t want to speak about, they were the ones who should have been worried. I went to Old Trafford not long ago; United played Liverpool in the League Cup. The first player to walk over and shake my hand was Darren Fletcher. Darren knew that I would have backed him to the hilt.
A lot of the comments I’ve been expected to defend over the years, I’m not actually sure I made them. I’m supposed to have said about Rio Ferdinand, something like, ‘Just
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