Roy Keane and Bruno Fernandes Resolve Spat Over Assist Record
Roy Keane says he and Bruno Fernandes have settled their brief spat over the Manchester United captain’s supposed pursuit of the Premier League assist record, after what he described as a “lovely chat” between the pair.
The row started last month on The Overlap, when Keane claimed Fernandes had once admitted in an interview that he chose to pass rather than shoot while chasing the assist record. The problem? Fernandes had actually said the opposite. He later called it a “lie” during an appearance on The Diary of a CEO, and made it clear he wanted to speak directly to the former United skipper.
That conversation has now happened.
Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, Keane explained that Fernandes reached out to clear the air and that the two had what he called a “nice, mature conversation”.
“He apologised, I forgave him, no problem, but no it was a good chat,” Keane said, leaning into the story with a hint of his familiar dry humour. “There was a reaction after what we said on the podcast a few weeks ago and he reached out to me and wanted a chat… I called him and we had a lovely chat.”
Keane stressed that the discussion went beyond one disputed anecdote about assists and finishing.
“A lovely chat about a bit of everything,” he said. “When we do podcasts or games, sometimes you think you say something afterwards and you communicate something and it doesn’t come across properly, so people get upset and he said he wanted to talk to me. And we had a nice, mature conversation. It was lovely. A lovely chat.”
For a man who built his career on hard edges and confrontation, Keane also made a point of outlining the distance he prefers to keep from current players.
“I like having boundaries with players,” he said. “I don’t want to be speaking to players every few weeks or their agents, I don’t want to go down that road, but every now and then a player might reach out, so I think it was important I spoke to him.”
The former United captain acknowledged the wider noise around Fernandes, who remains at the centre of scrutiny and speculation as the club’s most influential figure.
“There has been lots going on and lots reported,” Keane added. “He’s obviously a big player for United, I’m an ex-United player and I think the idea of this communicating and having a proper conversation, I really enjoyed it. Hopefully I think he did as well. Nice chat about a bit of everything and I felt better afterwards.”
Two United captains, one past and one present, briefly at odds over a misremembered quote and a record that may never be broken. In the end, it came down to a phone call, a frank exchange and, as Keane kept repeating with a smile, a “lovely chat” that pulled the heat out of another Old Trafford talking point.
