- Gabby Abgonlahor has revealed an event between himself and Roy Keane that led up to the latter’s departure from Villa Park
- Over the years, the pair have exchanged comments about their time together
- Keane spent five months at Villa as assistant manager to Paul Lambert in 2014
Former Aston Villa striker Gabby Agbonlahor has recalled the events leading up to Roy Keane’s departure at the club, where the pair shared many feuds with one another. Since they have both moved into punditry, they have exchanged comments regarding their time together at Villa.
By the time Keane arrived as Paul Lambert’s assistant in 2014, Agbonlahor was already a long-serving pillar of the Villa dressing room, having spent nearly ten years in the first team.
Tensions between the two figures reportedly simmered for weeks, tracing back to a bizarre incident where the former Manchester United captain allegedly hurled a can of Red Bull into the shower area in sheer annoyance, muttering that modern player habits were useless.
The underlying friction finally boiled over just a week later on the pitches of Bodymoor Heath. When the squad visibly struggled with a training exercise, Agbonlahor utilised his status as team leader to voice the players’ frustrations – a move that immediately put him on a direct collision course with the fierce Irish coach.
Training ground argument
Speaking on the In The Mixer podcast, the 39-year-old revealed the incident:
“We done this training session where the whole team’s doing a crossing and shooting session but (it’s) six or seven passes before you get like a cross in a shot. The standard wasn’t great, but you’re taking one shot every 10 minutes, so the players are getting cold.
“Gaffer Paul Lambert pulls it in and says alright guys, not good enough. Me as one of the captains there says, ‘Gaffer, everyone’s getting cold.’
“Roy Keane was like, ‘Oh, you’re getting cold. Are you wanting to warm up?’ Being sarcastic. So at that time, the players had enough of him. I just said, like, ‘Roy, I’m not talking to you, I’m talking to the manager’.
“He gives me them eyes, them angry eyes. He’s glaring at me, and then the gaffer’s gone, ‘blah blah blah’. And then the next day he left.
“He left Villa because I think he probably thought, ‘These players are going to make me do something I regret.’ He was gone, but for me it was more like, ‘You’re not going to bully me’.”
Keane recalls his time at Villa
Keane left his role as assistant manager in November 2014 after only five months with the club. At the time, he said it was motivated by his desire to concentrate on his coaching with the Republic of Ireland squad, though he later admitted to tensions with the group.
The Manchester United icon finally broke his silence on his brief stint in the Midlands during a live appearance on The Overlap Live in 2022.
Reflecting on the culture shock he experienced after leaving Sir Alex Ferguson’s elite culture, Keane did not hold back. He pulled no punches, branding certain figures at Villa Park as “scumbags.”
“It’s when you leave United and go to other clubs you realise the players don’t train properly. The players don’t turn up for training, they don’t speak to the gaffer properly. You only find out when you leave.
“I was at Aston Villa for a while. One or two players were, like, scumbags. They’d be scumbags on a building site. They wouldn’t train properly. The way they’d speak to staff – you’re thinking ‘amazing!'”
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Ultimately, this feud highlights the culture clash between two entirely different eras of football. For Keane, the standards he took for granted under Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United were non-negotiable, leaving him dumbfounded by the lack of professionalism at other clubs.
In contrast, Agbonlahor viewed Keane’s intense old-school discipline as counterproductive rather than constructive coaching.
Years later, as both men feature in the football punditry landscape, neither side shows any sign of softening their stance on what was a toxic few months at Villa.
