Roy Keane’s hilarious £1k wager to Sunderland players during pre-season which left £9m singing miffed
Roy Keane has revealed another amusing anecdote about his time as Sunderland manager.
The Manchester United legend Keane would manage the club to promotion from the Championship during his first season, then keeping the club in the Premier League the following campaign.
One of Keane’s big signings at the Stadium of Light was the signing of goalkeeper Craig Gordon, with the £9million fee paid to Hearts the highest a British club had ever paid for a goalkeeper at the time. Keane, though, had revealed details of minor gripe between the pair during pre-season on The Overlap.
“After Craig Gordon had a poor performance [at Sunderland], Roy lined up eight to nine players to try and beat him from 25-30 yards out,’ Gary Neville stated during the podcast. “If they scored, he’d give them £1,000, if they missed, they’d give him £100. The ex-Man United defender added: “He made £800 from the session.”
In response, Keane confirmed the rumour was true and that he had made the bet with his players during a pre-season training camp in Algarve, in Portugal.
“I made £800-£900, but I probably lost the dressing room!” Keane said. “We were at pre-season, playing down at the Algarve somewhere, and Craig’s in goal – there was a free-kick, about 40 yards out – and he gets beaten. He had a wall out – I said, ‘Why are you having a wall for? He’s miles away!’”
“I’m trying to have a bit of banter, a bit of fun – it’s pre-season – I said, ‘I’ll go in goal tomorrow lads, if any of you want to take a free-kick against me, go 20 yards out, I’m going to have no wall”, and I said, ‘If any of you score, I’ll give you £1,000’. A few missed and gave me £100.”
“So, the next day, it was a warm day, I said, ‘Lads, if any of you want to try it’ – I’m thinking one or two might try it. But wight or nine started walking down, so I get into goal and I had no wall, 20 yards out, so I’m thinking I could be £9,000 down here.
“You’re thinking one or two will definitely score if they hit the target, and hit it properly, I won’t be able to get near it. I remember the two or three goalkeepers that were together – obviously Craig – they thought I was disrespecting them. It was more the goalkeepers that were annoyed, the players that came thought this is a great laugh, ‘We could be getting £1,000 each tonight’.
“No one scored – I made some decent saves. Well, it was £1,000 for each shot! You can bet your life I was diving around like Peter Shilton! Strangely enough, they were very slow in paying me. This is where I kind of backfired a little bit.
“The next day we had another friendly, I was thinking, ‘No one’s paid me yet’. It was half-time, the game was 0-0 – [the way] I was hoping it was going, so I’m having a go at the players, I went ‘Listen, lads, you need to do better – and I better get my money tonight!.”
“You got to pay me that money tonight, I’m telling you’. Eight or nine lads came up to me after the game, I went ‘It’s about time!’”
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