Roy Keane's Haaland challenge shocked Manchester City players
Steve Howey said the Manchester City players were ‘shocked’ when they saw Roy Keane’s challenge on Alf-Inge Haaland.
Keane, in his updated autobiography The Second Half, revealed that he has no regrets about his infamous challenge on the Norwegian
The then Manchester United midfielder was fined a total of £155,000 and banned for eight games for the Haaland incident in April 2001.
Howey, who was playing for Manchester City in the game, admitted that Keane had always been looking for revenge after a preceding incident with Haaland in 1997, which saw the Irishman tear his cruciate ligament.
“We had some bad lads in our dressing room and we knew we’d protect our player if necessary, but when we saw it, even we were shocked,” Howey told Sky Sports News HQ.
“The thing is we all knew it was coming. There was talk about it before the game. If you look at the very first incident when Roy Keane actually hurt his knee I can see why he was annoyed by the way Alf-Inge Haaland stood over him.
“He was holding that grudge for a length of time and it was just boiling up and boiling up, everybody knew he was going to do it. It was just a case of when.”
Howey added that Haaland was fortunate to come away from the incident without a broken leg.
“I thought he broke his leg because of the way Alfie’s leg flips out at the end. Alfie has done quite well; he’s ridden it a little bit. If his foot was planted then it would have been game over.
“What he said on Alfie Inge Haaland and the other lad here [Clive Clarke] it certainly doesn’t look good for him.”
In a book packed full of talking points, Keane also says he regrets apologising to Sir Alex Ferguson over the notorious MUTV interview which hastened his acrimonious departure from Manchester United.
Ferguson criticised his former captain in his autobiography last year and Keane has hit back with a host of barbs and criticisms in his own book.
Keane says Ferguson was ill-advised to pursue a legal case against John Magnier and JP McManus over the stud fees from the Rock of Gibraltar racehorse.
And the former United captain effectively withdrew an apology he gave to Ferguson after the MUTV interview in which Keane was alleged to have criticised several of his team-mates.
"Now I kind of wish I hadn't (apologised). Afterwards I was thinking, 'I'm not sure why I apologised'. I just wanted to do the right thing," Keane said.
Ferguson claimed Keane challenged his authority with the criticism of several members of the United squad, including Rio Ferdinand, Darren Fletcher and Alan Smith.
But Keane, who claims in the book that someone at United leaked details about the tape, says his criticisms were not harsh.
"The idea that I was in the studio ranting and raving, no... I was told the interview was being pulled. They couldn't believe what I had said. I didn't think it was too bad. I thought everyone was overreacting."