Aston Villa legend Gabriel Agbonlahor has reignited his feud with Roy Keane after revealing the events that led to Keane's exit from Villa Park. The two Premier League pundits have traded comments over the years, with Keane previously describing certain players at Villa as "scumbags" during his time there.
The Red Bull Can Incident
Agbonlahor, 39, had been part of the senior Villa setup for nearly a decade by the time Keane joined Paul Lambert's coaching staff in 2014. He recalled one incident towards the end of Keane's stay in October of that year when the Manchester United icon launched a Red Bull can into the showers out of frustration, saying such practices "don't work."
Training Ground Clash
It was the following week where the pair collided in training after the Villa players struggled to make a drill work. Agbonlahor, who was one of Lambert's captains, got on Keane's wrong side when he spoke up for the squad.
Speaking on In The Mixer, brought to you by Sky Bet, Agbonlahor said: "We done this training session where the whole team's doing a crossing and shooting session but [it's] six or seven passes before you get like a cross in a shot. The standard wasn't great but you're taking one shot every 10 minutes, so the players are getting cold.
"Gaffer Paul Lambert pulls it in and says alright guys, not good enough. Me as one of the captains there says, 'Gaffer, everyone's getting cold'.
"Roy Keane was like, 'Oh you're getting cold. Are you wanting to warm up?' Being sarcastic. So at that time the players had enough of him. I just said, like, 'Roy, I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to the manager'.
That act of defiance did not appear to go down well with the Old Trafford legend. Agbonlahor believed the timing of his exit soon afterwards was too coincidental to not be related.
"He gives me them eyes, them angry eyes," he continued. "He's glaring at me and then the gaffer's gone, 'blah blah blah'. And then the next day he left.
"He left Villa because I think he probably thought, 'These players are going to make me do something I regret'. He was gone but for me it was more like, 'You're not going to bully me'.
Keane's Departure and Later Comments
Keane, 54, left his Villa post in November 2014 after only five months with the club. At the time, he said it was motivated by his desire to concentrate on his coaching with the Republic of Ireland squad, though he later admitted to tensions with the group.
During an appearance on The Overlap Live in 2022, Keane broke down his own departure from the club. He labelled certain talents at Villa Park "scumbags for their behaviour in refusing to commit as he would have liked.
He said: "It's when you leave United and go to other clubs you realise the players don't train properly, the players don't turn up for training, they don't speak to the gaffer properly. You only find out when you leave.
"I was at Aston Villa for a while. One or two players were, like, scumbags. They'd be scumbags on a building site. They wouldn't train properly. The way they'd speak to staff - you're thinking 'amazing!'"
Agbonlahor's Response
Agbonlahor has repeatedly critiqued his former boss for falling short in the man management department. He scrutinised Keane for his comments criticising Harry Maguire in the past and called him a "bitter guy" in 2023 for demanding more out of Declan Rice.
