Search icon

Football

07th Jul 2021

Roy Keane has ITV crew in stitches with Neil Diamond concert story

Patrick McCarry

Roy Keane

The lads were buckling at the knees.

Gary Neville sets them up. Roy Keane knocks them down.

Ahead of the Euro 2020 semi-final between England and Denmark, Roy Keane was holding forth and proving his comic glimpses from earlier in the tournament were no fluke.

One of the songs on rotation at Wembley Stadium, during Euro 2020, has been Neil Diamond’s old-school floor-filler ‘Sweet Caroline’.

After the fans at Wembley belted it out, ITV host Mark Pougatch asked the panel about the song. Ian Wright, of course, loves it. Neville threw it to Keane and asked about his experience at a Diamond gig, a few years back.

Keane did not disappoint. Once again, the comic timing and delivery were spot on:

“Yeah, [I went] about 10 years ago… but I ended up arguing with the woman next to me.

“She kept singing all the songs out quite loud so I got in a bit of trouble that night… but brilliant concert.”

This was up there with his take on two England players having to isolate after chatting with Scotland’s Billy Gilmour, who later tested positive for Covid-19, for almost 20 minutes in the Wembley tunnel.

“The only thing I’d be critical of,” he said, “is why would you want to speak to an opposition player – I don’t care if he’s a teammate or not – for over 20 minutes? I very rarely speak to anyone for more than five minutes!

We’ll miss Euro 2020 when it wraps up.

As for Roy Keane, we are loving this new comic streak that Neville, Wright and Micah Richards are mining.