It's difficult to imagine Manchester United in the 1990s without Roy Keane.
The Cork man was the heartbeat of the team, both on and off the pitch. While he was a world class operator in central midfield, he was also the one that ensured standards remained high in the dressing room.
Of course, he came very close to never playing for the club.
When leaving Nottingham Forest in the summer of 1993, Keane had initially agreed to join Blackburn Rovers. He even went as far as meeting their manager Kenny Dalglish and shaking hands on a deal to move to Ewood Park.
However, after he travelled home to Ireland for the weekend, Manchester United and Alex Ferguson would get in contact in an effort to hijack the move. The rest is history.
This story has been told on numerous occasions over the last three decades, although the two men men at the centre of the incident were reunited on stage in a show that aired on television last night.
Roy Keane & Kenny Dalglish reunited at The Overlap Live
Roy Keane was part of The Overlap Live tour earlier this year, joining Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher in a handful of live shows around Ireland and the UK earlier this year.
The best bits from those events are being broadcast on Sky Max at the moment, with last night's edition focusing on the show they had in Liverpool.
Kenny Dalglish happened to be one of the guests on the night and it didn't take long for his past history with Keane to be brought up.
After host Kelly Cates (who is also Dalglish's daughter) commented that she had never seen Keane look so uncomfortable, the Irishman went on to sum up how the whole thing went down at the time.
Keane v Dalglish 😉😁
📺 Ep 3 of The Overlap on Tour at 9pm BST on Sky Max. pic.twitter.com/OMPurzCUYA— Kelly Cates (@KellyCates) June 28, 2023
You're making me feel really bad here now, you're killing me tonight. I still feel bad...
I was lucky to have or two options. I did shake hands and said 'I'll come', I think the contract was basically agreed. I went back to Ireland and got a phone call from United.
The mistake I made is that I said I would sign. Obviously I had no regrets about United, but you weren't too happy with me.
Everyone thinks Kenny is a really nice guy. I'll always remember he rang me, and obviously word got out that I wasn't going to Blackburn, and he said 'I'm not happy, you shook hands'. I said 'I did, I'm sorry Kenny' and blah, blah, blah.
I said 'listen, I'm going on my holidays tomorrow'. I was going to Ayia Napa, there was a couple of museums over there that I wanted to go and see.
Do you know what said? He said 'I'm going to find you over there'. Honestly! For the next two weeks I'm in Ayia Napa, and every bar I was in I'm looking over my shoulder! I'm thinking 'he's coming to get me'.
Brilliant.
Roy Keane has told an even more x-rated version of this story in the past, including in his autobiography. The language used by Dalglish was a bit stronger in other editions, with the Scot apparently saying:
Nobody does this to Kenny Dalglish.
You’re a wee b*****d and you won’t get away with this.
He definitely didn't take it well, with even Keane acknowledging that he did not handle the situation correctly.
It's good to see that they could laugh about it 30 years on.
SEE ALSO: Robbie Keane Adds Former Ireland Teammate To Maccabi Tel Aviv Coaching Staff
