Roy Keane admits he's been asked to ‘go easy’ on footballer he’s grilled as a pundit

Roy Keane has revealed he's been asked to take it "easy" on players he has criticised in the past.

Talking on Stick to Football with Gary Neville, Ian Wright and Jill Scott, the former United captain lifted the lid on what can be in store for those who run their judgement over players. The Sky Sports pundit, who is on Euro 2024 duty with ITV, went on to let slip that he's even been contacted in the past with instructions to give players he has castigated an easier ride.

Teeing up the discussion, ex-Arsenal striker Wright suggested that he has "no problem" criticising players, however he disclosed that he is more than aware that a backlash is coming when he runs the risk of condemning a player's performance. The former Gunners' forward also claimed pundits need a degree of resilience about them in order to do their jobs nowadays.

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Speaking on the nature of former players and experts offering their take on current players, Wright elaborated that summarisers need to "speak their truth". "You have to have a certain amount of resilience about yourself to go on and speak your truth and what you believe as it's your opinion," Wright said.

"People should have the right to reply so when I go on I have no problem with saying stuff but you know it's coming and once you know it's coming you can deal with it." he added.

Keane then asked the group whether anything they had said in public had ever come back to haunt them. "Has anybody got in touch with you yet?" Keane asked. "Have we all experienced when a player or an agent and gets in touch (to say) give them a helping hand?"

Scott and Neville seemed perplexed by the