With all the outrage, justified outrage, and the MOTD panel not even discussing Roy Keane in their All Time Premier League XI and instead opting for Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, it's worth looking back at that views of someone who does appreciate what the Cork man brought to the table.
The selection trio of Alan Shearer, Ian Wright, and Danny Murphy barely mentioned Keane's name as they picked two English players ahead of the former Man Utd captain and his old rival Patrick Vieira, which rendered the XI obsolete for many Premier League fans who couldn't get their head around how a player that won as much as Keane did in the manner he played was snubbed.
If you were one of those puzzled football fans, then perhaps you will enjoy the fact that Bobby Charlton listed Roy Keane in his perfect all-time squad along with the likes of Michel Platini, Johann Cruyff, Ferenc Puskas, and Pele.
As pointed out by a number of r/soccer users in the wake of the MOTD team snubbing Keane, it goes to show that there are some out there who value his skillset, as the legendary Charlton picked his side for Four Four Two back in 2007.
GK: Gordon Banks
RB: Djalma Santos
CB: Bobby Moore
CB: Franz Beckenbauer
LB: Silvio MarzoliniRM: Michel Platini
CM: Alfredo di Stefano
CM: Duncan Edwards
LM: Johan CruyffST: Diego Maradona
ST: PeleManager: Alex Ferguson
Bench:
Peter Schmeichel
John Charles
Francisco Gento
Roy Keane
Ferenc Puskas
And on Roy Keane individually, Charlton said the following:
A born leader and a great team player. He didn’t make many mistakes and he always made up for it if he did!
Proper order.
You can say it's all a matter of opinion, that's true, you can say it doesn't really matter who makes a hypothetical XI, that's also true, but at the end of the day, if you try and argue that Roy Keane was not one of the two best midfielders the Premier League has ever seen considering how much he won and how influential he was in every single one of those successes...
You're going to pick a fight with a lot of people.
You can check out Bobby Charlton's reasoning behind all of his picks over on FourFourTwo.com.
