Aston Villa completed a remarkable midsummer turnaround by drawing with West Ham yesterday to finish 17th place in the Premier League, and avoid relegation hell. Villa were an utter basket case up until coronavirus stalled the season, but they've experienced a Lazarus turn since the restart. The 1-1 draw yesterday assures their place at the biggest table in English football, and their players celebrated like they'd won something substantial (which when you consider the reality of another season in the Championship, they pretty much did.)
I bet Roy Keane will be losing his marbles if he sees this of Reina 😂 🇪🇸 💃 pic.twitter.com/MgkuYqoyy1
— Sparta GK 🇺🇦 (@Sparta_GK) July 27, 2020
Roy Keane was in the Sky Sports studio to witness these celebrations, and delivered the most on-brand Keano response to the 17th place team in the Premier League singing 'Sweet Caroline' like they'd just won the Champions League.
🎶 Good times never felt so good, so good, so good! 🎶
"Imagine if they ever win anything!" 🤣
Roy Keane was NOT impressed with #AVFC's celebrations! pic.twitter.com/ruTifkqQZf— Sky Sports (@SkySports) July 27, 2020
It wasn't so much what Keane said but what he didn't say: the withering silent disdain as the Villa players lapped up their achievement. Perhaps in Keane's world of perfectly modest footballers, players who'd just staved off near-certain relegation would sit morosely in the dressing room listening to the Smiths while dwelling on those hidings back in February and March and thinking 'lads, we should have done better'.
Or maybe Keane was just playing a role. He walked back his initial scorn by praising Dean Smith before ruling that the celebrations were 'slightly over the top'. Keane seems highly aware that he is playing a part when in the Sky Sports studio, and in fairness to him, he plays it very well.
