Roy Keane: Brilliant footage of Joe Cole 'getting revenge' on Irishman

Roy Keane is undoubtedly one of the hardest men in football. That is a fact.

Oh, what, you don’t believe us? That’s fine. Go and take it up with him and see what happens.

We certainly won’t be backing down on the claim anytime soon, merely out of fear, as he is one seriously fierce individual – even these days.

Throughout a glistening career where he established himself as one of the Premier League’s greatest ever midfielders – and one of the best in Europe during his peak – Keane also earned a reputation for being notoriously tough.

There wasn’t – and probably still isn’t – such a thing as ‘too physical’ or ‘too rough’ in Keane’s book, with him loving a crunching tackle or a scrap on the pitch just as much as the game itself.

It was a mentality thing, mostly. Keane was a serial winner and the captain of Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United – there was no time to be a pushover. His mindset was elite and while it would sometimes land him in hot water, it was what propelled United forward and lifted his teammates on the field.

When Keane was angry on the pitch, you’d know about it. Just go and ask Alf-Inge Haaland, or Patrick Vieira – two men he regularly didn’t see eye to eye with and the latter of which felt the full force of Keane’s physicality.

He wasn’t against overstepping the mark. And as a young footballer, that should frighten you to death, especially if you’re tasked with making his afternoon a miserable one in order to snatch a result against him and his side.

Clearly that wasn’t the case for a youthful and bleach blonde Joe Cole in 2002, as West Ham lost a thrilling contest at home to United that ended 5-3 to the visitors.

Footage from Vintage Footy on YouTube has surfaced of Cole and Keane coming to the boil