Gabby Agbonlahor slams Roy Keane after Aston Villa ‘bad lads’ claim amid Sunderland manager link

Former Aston Villa captain Gabriel Agbonlahor has slammed Roy Keane’s man management style - describing the Irishman as “disrespectful” when speaking to players.

Keane, who is currently in the running to take over as head coach at Sunderland, was assistant manager at Aston Villa in 2014, working alongside manager Paul Lambert.

Speaking on talkSPORT this morning (February 3) former Villa skipper Agbonlahor criticised the former Manchester United captain’s approach when dealing with players during his time with the club.

He said: “The problem with Roy Keane when he came to Aston Villa, he couldn’t understand how we weren’t as good as the players he played with.

“He couldn’t accept that we weren’t going to be as good as Giggs, Scholes, Beckham, and those players.

“And just his way of coaching; it wasn’t the right method for players nowadays and players when he was at Aston Villa, and just the way he spoke to players - there were times where there were quite experienced players, players like Joe Cole and he just didn’t speak to them right.

“He spoke to them in a way which was disrespectful, there is a way to talk to players and his man management i’d say would be 0/100 it was that bad.”

What did Roy Keane say about the players during his time at Villa?

When he appeared on Gary Neville’s The Overlap podcast in the summer, Keane gave his version of events.

“The one reason I went to Villa was because it was coaching with a Premier League team and I can get my hours in to keep learning. But I didn’t like the group, I have to say the group of players.

“What I do if I dislike a group of players or if I fall out with one or two - I kept my guard up because I thought I’m not losing it with players. Every club will have one or two, but I thought Villa had six or seven lads who I couldn’t take to because I thought really bad lads - not good pros.

“Some of it was behaviour, attitude to training, late for training...if they come off the bench not trying because they’d been left out, and when I left I thought I’m going to just focus on Ireland and I thought is it me?

“The players who I ended up following I follow their careers closely in case I thought maybe I got that really wrong and I was a bit harsh on them.

“They do nothing, the same with the couple of lads I fell out with at Ireland - they do nothing in their careers, so I think I was kind of trying to help them, not that I fell out with anyone at Villa I couldn’t be bothered to fall out with any of them.”

Keane went on to claim two of the players he met at Aston Villa were two of the ‘worst professionals he’s met in his life’ for “attitude and desire.”

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