Roy Keane was appointed Aston Villa’s assistant manager by Paul Lambert in 2014 and spent four months at the club before moving on. He was assistant for only 13 games in all competitions but created a toxic environment that made his position untenable due to arguments had with players.
Keane was believed to have fallen out with Chris Herd, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Charles N’Zogbia and Fabian Delph among others, but his exit was publicly blamed on him struggling to marry to assistant manager roles for club and country.
With Keane being linked with a vacant managerial role, Agbonlahor has spoken out about the 50-year-old’s short-lived stint at Villa Park, revealing Keane was a “problem” due to his “disrespect” of players.
He said on talkSPORT Breakfast: “The problem with Roy Keane was that when he came to Aston Villa, he couldn’t understand that we weren’t as good as the players he played with. His way of coaching, it wasn’t the right method for players nowadays.
“Just the way he spoke to players. There were times when there were quite experienced players, and he didn’t speak to them right. He spoke to them in a way that was disrespectful. His man management would be zero out of 100. It was that bad.”
Villa picked up three wins from the 13 games Keane was assistant for, beating Stoke City 1-0 (August 16), Hull City 2-1 (August 31) and Liverpool 1-0 (September 13). At the time of his departure, however, Villa had suffered six straight defeats before picking up two draws, so it wasn’t a shock that he left.
Agbonlahor is now warning against Sunderland bringing Keane back to the Stadium of Light, but time will tell if the former Villa assistant will make a long-awaited return to management.
