10 Training Ground Feuds You Probably Didn't Know About

9. Roy Keane And Jason McAteer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXWGIEgC06Q While obviously never colleagues at club level, Keane served as the Irish captain for years, before a brief hiatus interrupted proceedings during the 2002 World Cup fiasco in Saipan. A bristly and abrasive character, portrayed as something of a lone wolf, it's not surprising that Keane appears in this list twice, often irked by most of what defines modern day professional footballer. International colleague Jason McAteer was one player who felt the harsh lashings of Keanes' tongue more than most. One example of Keane's contempt for his Liverpudlian counterpart would be an innocuous 'How's it going, Roy mate?' asked during a breakfast shared by the Irish team. The blunt reply was effectively in the mould that McAteer should not be addressing Keane as 'a mate' as he 'wasn't his friend'. With Keane having walked out - or having been sent home, depending on whose version of events you believe - of the Saipan training camp on the eve of the 2002 World Cup, he would document the goings-on of the debacle in a tell-all autobiography. With McAteer having taken issue with some of the content written, he mouthed 'put that in your next book' during a Premier League clash on Wearside. Keane's response was to wait until injury-time before blatantly elbowing him in the head, before being shown his marching orders, leading to a heated exchange in which the Sunderland midfielder effectively destroyed any shred of respect Keane may have had for him by gesticulating once again that he write his complaints in his book.