Roy Keane reveals how Craig Gordon bet cost him the Sunderland dressing room after 'disrespectful' banter backfired

Roy Keane admits a bet with his Sunderland squad after a Craig Gordon mistake probably cost him the dressing room.

Keane broke the British transfer record for a keeper back in 2007, paying Hearts £9million to sign the Scotland international. Gordon suffered multiple injuries on Wearside and ended up missing two years of football before returning north to Celtic and scooping up trophies with the Hoops, before eventually making an emotional return to the Jambos in 2020.

And it was a goal he conceded in a pre-season friendly for the Black Cats that ended up making Keane a tidy profit, although he admits it proved a costly move longer term after he set his charges a free-kick challenge that Gordon and his fellow keepers weren't too impressed with during a Portuguese training camp. He told the Stick to Football podcast: "I made £800 or £900 but I probably lost the dressing room. We were playing a pre-season friendly somewhere down in the Algarve and Craig's the goalie.

"There's a free-kick about 40 yards out and he gets beaten from 40 yards. He had a wall and after the game I'm like 'what are you having a wall for? It's f****** miles out.' It's pre-season and you're trying to have a bit of banter, a bit of fun. I said: 'I tell you what, I'll go in goal tomorrow, you take take free-kicks about 25 yards out with no wall and if any of you score, I'll give you £1000. if you miss, you give me £100.

"So after training the next day, I got the gloves off the goalkeeping coach and said: 'Lads, if any of you want to try it..' I'm thinking one or two might try it. Eight or nine start walking down...

"So I get in goal and some of the lads could strike the ball. I've no wall and they're just in the middle of the goal, about 20 yards