Steve Sidwell has opened up on the time he asked for Roy Keane’s autograph when he was at Arsenal.
The rivalry between Arsenal and Manchester United was fierce through the late 90s and early 00s and speaking on The Peter Crouch podcast he recalled the incident, he said,
“I remember Roy Keane. In my first year at YTS (youth training scheme) when I was a scholar, we used to have the halfway house at Highbury. So we’d go in there, wait for players to come past and go for their warm-ups.
“So I used to go out and I used to have an autograph book, because people would say, ‘Can you get me an autograph?’ So anyway, United are in town, Becks come down, Scholes. . .signed, signed, signed. Keane came down. Oh my god.
“Roy Keane came down this tunnel at Highbury – this is when Arsenal and Man U was at their peak. He’s staring out onto the pitch and the tunnel is tighter than a mouse’s earhole. He’s looking at the gladiator’s arena and I’ve just gone, ‘Roy can you sign this please?’ And he’s looked at me, looked away and just gone, ‘After the f***ing game.”
A typical Roy Keane response. The battles between Keane and Vieira will live long in the memory.