‘You f****** egg’ – Gary Neville reads out X-rated texts from Roy Keane during England row with Ian Wright
Things got a bit spicy between Roy Keane and Ian Wright on the first ever television broadcast of their Stick to Football show.
The Premier League legends have been clashing over England and host Gary Neville resulted in reading out their expletive-filled text messages to each other the clear up the debate.
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England play Slovakia in the round of 16 on Sunday, where Gareth Southgate’s men will be looking to prove their doubters and critics wrong after a drab start to the tournament.
While the Three Lions manager and his players have been talking up their achievement of finishing top of Group C to sail through to the knockout stage, supporters have been less than convinced by how they got there.
You know that famous Little Britain scene between characters Lou and Andy, where David Walliams asks Matt Lucas how he got up a tree, to which he replies: “I fell”?
That’s how it felt England managed to go through as group winners. You might have even been sent that meme. A 1-0 win, 1-1 draw and 0-0 draw was all it needed against Serbia, Denmark and Slovenia to progress.
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England boast a squad packed of young and hungry stars and proven world-class talent, and so it’s fair to say fans expected much more.
So did Wright and Keane, it appears, although the Arsenal and Manchester United greats did disagree on one thing - as Neville revealed when he read out their messages to each other live on air.
Wright began: "You know when we were talking in the [WhatsApp] group the other day, he [Keane] just went off on me, man!"
"Nah,” replied Keane. “You started that, Wrighty!"
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Neville then started reading out the exchange, which happened after the 1-1 draw with Denmark, from his phone: “You brought the Euro final up you f***ing egg!”
Wright then jumped in, looking straight down the camera and saying: “That's Roy! That's Roy to me!
Ian Wright makes joke about Manchester United fans as Roy Keane is spotted wearing an Arsenal kit
Neville continued reading Keane's texts: “All bulls*** about being afraid to fail. What bulls*** that is! England are the best at it so they should be f****** used to it.
“All ex-England players thinking they know about the game when they won f*** all.
“And then, too lazy themselves to get their f****** coaching badges but preach about tactics and systems and playing between the f****** lines. Turns my f***** stomach.”
Wright then jumped in again in the studio: “Where'd you get that anger from, Roy?”
Keane replied: “Because you said something at the start! Go back to what he said!'
Neville continued: “This is what Ian said… ‘History shows we don't take the initiative when we're winning. Fight and desire doesn't help when you're afraid to fail. Euro's final, scored in two minutes and after that, at Wembley, we had five shots’.
“You [Keane] then responded: ‘England beat Germany 2-0 in Euro 2020 and they had five shots with four on target.
"So you can win big games with limited chances, being clinical and don't give much away simply’.”
Warning: Offensive language included
Keane then asked: “Then what does he say?,” to which Neville replied, “He said: ‘I'm talking about a final at home. The f*** are you talking about?'"
“Exactly Wrighty,” Keane said, explaining why he got annoyed during the text exchange. “You were rude!”
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Wright then explained: “What I was saying was if we’re going to score in two minutes in a final at Wembley and still not take the initiative, when are we going to do it? That’s the time to do it, surely, but we’re still not doing it!”
It seems they certainly agree with that point - now it’s up to England to prove us all wrong.
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