Roy Keane’s Man United exit a ‘disaster’ but not his fault, says Mikael Silvestre

Alex Ferguson was outraged by the interview and Roy Keane departed shortly after but Mikael Silvestre insists it’s nothing Keane wouldn’t have said in the dressing room. Picture: Nick Potts, PA

Roy Keane’s former team-mate Mikael Silvestre has said the Manchester United captain’s exit was a “disaster”, saying his infamous MUTV interview was not an issue for the players.

Keane left United in November 2005 following an MUTV interview, which was never broadcast, in which Keane criticised his team-mates after a 4-1 defeat to Middlesbrough. Keane did not feature in the game.

Alex Ferguson was outraged by the interview and Keane departed shortly after but Silvestre insists it’s nothing Keane wouldn’t have said in the dressing room, putting more blame on MUTV for putting him in that position.

"As players, we knew that Roy was always straight with us and he would treat everybody the same. He said, 'what I told the MUTV guys, I would've said to your face', so it [the MUTV interview] wasn't an issue for us," Silvestre told SPORTbible.

"People would be shocked if they saw the things that were said in the dressing room on the TV.

"But the vocabulary and the way Roy would speak in the dressing room was normal; losing 4-1 as Manchester United and the way we gave up the goals and conceded is what annoyed him the most.

"You could almost blame MUTV for putting him in that position because if you know Roy, he's not going to hold back.

"It was a disaster in the end, but it could've been dealt in a much better way.

"It wasn't nice to see the relationship between Roy, the manager and Carlos Queiroz being ripped apart.

"When you win trophies, you need everyone to be together and there can't be any hard feelings or second thoughts about who you're going to work with or fight for.

"I felt bad to the point that when Roy left the meeting, I was the first one to leave after him about a second later because I wanted to drag him back to the meeting.

"I didn't feel it was the right way to end things, so I followed him to the dressing room, but couldn't get a word out to make him change his mind to go back upstairs to the meeting.

"I just saw him get changed and then he left."