Roy Keane has revealed that a bet with his Sunderland squad after a Craig Gordon mistake cost him the dressing room.
Gordon was struggling with injuries on Wearside after joining the Black Cats from Hearts in a £9million deal.
After a goal Gordon conceded in a pre-season friendly, Keane made a bet that cost him the Sunderland dressing room.
Keane told about the story on the Stick to Football podcast this week, which many regard as one of the best football podcasts.
Roy Keane told the Stick to Football podcast: “I made £800 or £900 but I probably lost the dressing room. We were playing a pre-season friendly somewhere down in the Algarve and Craig’s the goalie.
“There’s a free-kick about 40 yards out and he gets beaten from 40 yards. He had a wall and after the game I’m like ‘what are you having a wall for? It’s f****** miles out.’ It’s pre-season and you’re trying to have a bit of banter, a bit of fun. I said: ‘I tell you what, I’ll go in goal tomorrow, you take take free-kicks about 25 yards out with no wall and if any of you score, I’ll give you £1000. if you miss, you give me £100.
“So after training the next day, I got the gloves off the goalkeeping coach and said: ‘Lads, if any of you want to try it..’ I’m thinking one or two might try it. Eight or nine start walking down…
“So I get in goal and some of the lads could strike the ball. I’ve no wall and they’re just in the middle of the goal, about 20 yards out. I’m thinking: ‘I could be £9,000 down here.’ You’re thinking one or two will definitely score. If they hit the target and hit it properly, I wouldn’t be able to get near it.
“The banter I was trying to have, I remember two or three of the goalkeepers were together and one of them was Craig. I think they thought I was disrespecting them. My point was that it was much harder without a wall. It was more the goalkeepers that were annoyed – the players thought it was a great laugh. They thought they were getting £1000 each!
“Eight or nine came up and no-one scored. I made some decent saves. It was £1000 foe each shot, you bet your life I was diving for them – I was like Peter Shilton! They had a little bit of a laugh, but again, I think I lost them. They were very slow in paying and this is where it kind of backfired a little bit.
‘We had another friendly the next day. It was half-time and it wasn’t going the way I hoped so I was having a go at the players: ‘Listen lads, you need to better and I better get my f****** money tonight!'”
