Jonathan Walters stirs up Roy Keane enmity again with fresh claims about the Cork man

In an often cryptic interview on Thursday, Walters said he will eventually reveal certain things about what Keane said to him in the past, which were lies, warning “the truth will always come out”.

Fri, 05 Jan, 2024 - 15:00

John Fallon, Ian Mallon

Jonathan Walters has added fuel to the fire in his running battle with Roy Keane, reiterating that he put his former manager in his place at Ipswich Town.

On Thursday in an interview with Talksport, Walters promised to reveal further details about his arch nemesis from Cork in a yet-to-be-constructed book and has taken to social media today to expand on his thoughts.

Specifically, he addresses Keane’s putdown about the lack of medals Walters won – adamant he feels sorry for people ‘who judge their worth and believe they are superior to everybody else based on these things’.

Keane, as skipper and midfield powerhouse, was central to Manchester United’s golden period between 1992 and 2005 when he left in controversial circumstances.

During Thursday’s interview with TalkSPORT’s Goldstein and co-anchor Darren Bent, Walters was played the now infamous clip of Keane’s attack during an Off The Ball roadshow in 2019.

This video of Roy resurfaces regularly and whilst on Talksport I was asked about it again, so let me address it once here on X. The next time I address it will be when it’s written down and it will form a part of a small chapter in an extensive book.

To give context to the Off… pic.twitter.com/8Lu11OOO7s
— Jonathan Walters (@JonWalters19) January 5, 2024

At the time Keane, who came across Walters again when he was Martin O’Neill’s assistant with Ireland, said: “The games he was fit for with Ireland he did well, I have to say. But towards the end when players are turning up and creating stuff….”

The Sky Sports pundit had also called Walters a “bluffer” and criticised him over interviews he had conducted discussing personal difficulties and for “crying on the tv… family situation, do me a favour”.

When first asked about being “at loggerheads” with Keane, Walters responded: “That goes back to probably Ipswich Town.

Previously now-retired Walters claimed that Keane, when he was manager of Ipswich, challenged the player to a fight after Walters demanded to be allowed to leave the club for Premier League move to Stoke City.

He claims Keane removed his watch and jumper and had squared up to him, but when Walters told him to throw the first punch Keane backed down and said that if he was struck he’d have the player arrested.

"Make no mistake, when Roy crossed the line at Ipswich, I put him firmly back in his place and I was fully justified with my response,” Walters said today in a message on X, formerly Twitter, today.

"Many years later when he regurgitated his thoughts whilst we were on International duty with Ireland, history repeated itself.

"This (Off The Ball) video of Roy resurfaces regularly and whilst on Talksport I was asked about it again, so let me address it once here on X. The next time I address it will be when it’s written down and it will form a part of a small chapter in an extensive book.

"To give context to the Off The Ball clip, this was on the back of an emotional interview I did on The Late Late show with Ryan Tubridy when I spoke of some personal issues. I discussed my brother who had recently passed and other family issues which I won’t go into right now but were just as poignant.

"I am an individual who stands up for what I believe is right, but there are others who struggle when people don't capitulate to them.

“The issue for those who make things up is ensuring there's no evidence to the contrary, and in this case, there is.

“When it comes to measuring a successful life based on awards and medals, I don’t require material possessions to demonstrate what I’ve achieved in life.

“I feel sorry for those who judge their worth and believe that they are superior to everyone else based on these things. I’ve been able to live a dream and have a career at the very pinnacle of football, doing what 99.99% of the population will never get the chance to do.

"I have got a beautiful wife and amazing children who are my greatest achievement bar none. As to all the other things that have happened in my career that nobody knows about, I can guarantee no player has trodden the same path.

"If and when I share my story, I’ll have to revisit places that I don’t particularly want to go back to. Whilst this will shock most, I do believe it would be a valuable source of help to others."

Walters refers to the rest of the footage of the Off The Ball show, which Goldstein didn’t play where Roy Keane questions the player’s career and success, as well as his time out injured at Burnley.

“If you lie it will come up, the truth will always come out, so it will come out by me when the time is right to do it when I feel like: ‘Here’s my career’,” he added.

“I’ve said before at some point I might go through my career and do a book and it’ll be a story that no one will ever know anything about.

“In my career, every single club I’ve gone through a journey that no other player, I guarantee, has gone through at different parts, and with so many things during my career that no one knows a single thing about. If and when I do tell that story, I’ll tell it in detail, I’ll just be honest.”

Walters added that Keane’s 2019 row in the Irish camp with him and Harry Arter, “was ridiculous”.

“He was the assistant manager of a national team and we were preparing for a game in France, in fact we had France away, and that was just wrong at the time as well.”