Gabriel Agbonlahor slams Sunderland managerial candidate

The Irishman was at the club alongside Paul Lambert from July 2014 to November 2014. 

Agbonlahor has admitted that during that short stint with the club, Keane was a very difficult figure to work with. 

“The problem with Roy Keane when he come to Aston Villa, he couldn’t understand how we weren’t as good as the players he played with,” said Agbonlahor, via Talksport on Twitter. 

“He couldn’t accept that we weren’t going to be as good as [Ryan] Giggs, [Paul] Scholes, [David] Beckham. Just his way of coaching, it wasn’t the right method for players nowadays. 

“The way he spoke to players, the times where there were quite experienced players like Joe Cole, he just didn’t speak to them right. He spoke to them in a way that was disrespectful.”

Roy Keane has been linked with the current managerial vacancy at League One side Sunderland. 

Keane hasn’t been involved with a football side since his stint as assistant manager at Nottingham Forest in 2019. He worked alongside Martin O’Neill, who he also partnered with for the Ireland national side. 

Keane has not been a full time manager since his time with Ipswich Town, who he managed from 2009 to 2011.

Sunderland are currently third in the League One table, five points off league leaders Rotherham. 

This isn’t the first time that players who have worked under Keane have spoken about how difficult he can be to work with.

During his time with the Ireland team as assistant manager under Martin O’Neill, many players came out and criticised Keane’s handling of personal matters. 

He has fallen out with people he played alongside as well, famously having an outburst on MUTV that cost him his job at Manchester United, as well as his famous scraps with his managers Sir Alex Ferguson and