Keane on nearly joining Blackburn Rovers instead of Man Utd

Keane is widely regarded as one of the best midfielders in United’s history, having won seven Premier League titles, four FA Cups and the Champions League under Alex Ferguson.

However, he was on the verge of a move to Ewood Park in the summer of 1993 after impressing for Nottingham Forest.

He told The Overlap: “During the summer I met with Blackburn and Kenny Dalglish, they agreed a £4million deal with Forest.

“Nottingham Forest were delighted because Blackburn were giving the £500,000 extra, they didn’t want to wait until September 1 (for my release clause) as they wanted me for pre-season.

"I was on £250,000 (per year) at Forest and Kenny said they could give me £400,000. I think I initially asked for £500,000 because I heard Shearer was on that.

“It was a nice pay rise and I was sitting in an office and said, ‘Okay, I’ll do the deal’.

“It was a Friday evening and Blackburn said the people in the office are gone so we can’t draw the contract up, so I got a flight back home and said we’d sort it next week.”

Things are rarely straightforward in football and the situation changed when United joined the race for Keane’s signature.

“I flew back to Cork, went out the Saturday night and had a good time because I was going to Blackburn and getting a nice pay rise,” he continued.

Dalglish tried to bring Keane to Ewood Park (Image: PA)

“Sunday morning I’m in bed, not in great form, my mother comes up and says that Alex Ferguson is on the phone.

"He said that he’d been trying to speak to me, and I said that I’d agreed to go to Blackburn. Alex Ferguson asked if I’d signed anything, I didn’t, so he asked me to meet him. I flew to Manchester on the Monday to meet him.

"I had to take a step back and realise that I should at least speak to Manchester United. This was all with no agent and I was also jeopardising the Blackburn deal.

"This dragged on for months and I had to go back to pre-season with Forest because United didn’t want to match Blackburn's offer.

“United’s point would have been that my clause was £3.5million, but Forest were saying that’s after September 1 so if you wanted to do the deal earlier (you’d have to match Rovers).”

Eventually, United managed to get a deal over the line and the combative midfielder went on to make more than 300 appearances for the Old Trafford club.

"I remember being away with the international team and speaking to some of the players, explaining that Blackburn had offered me £400,000 but United were at £300,000,” he recalled.

“David O’Leary was there and said that I could use Michael Kennedy, a solicitor in London who had done all his contracts.

"I rang him that evening, explained the situation and asked him to speak to Martin Edwards for me, and he got back to me the next day and said that United will go to £350,000. I said I’d go to United.”

Keane admitted Dalglish had not taken the decision well. As far as the Scot was concerned, a handshake meant that the deal was done.

The 52-year-old went on to manage Sunderland and Ipswich after hanging up his boots and had some similar experiences from the other side.

“I’ve done that with players when I’ve been a manager,” he said. “They’ve said yeah, then the following day they’ve gone to somebody else.

“If things were done that night, I’d have signed for Blackburn. You have to take responsibility, that wouldn’t happen to a club now.

“Everybody would stay behind, it’s not as if people leave at 5 o’clock. They have to look at themselves.

“But Kenny was going mad and I remember saying, ‘I’m going on my holidays tomorrow, I’m going to enjoy myself’. That’s, you know, ‘I’ll sign for them when I get back’. So I said, ‘I’m done’.

“He said ‘I’ll f****** find you’. I was in Ayia Napa for a week looking over my shoulder, I swear!”

Things turned out alright for Dalglish and Rovers, though, winning the Premier League title a couple of years later following a memorable campaign at Ewood Park.

The Scot went onto have spells in the dugout at Newcastle and Celtic before returning to Liverpool, where he had enjoyed a legendary playing career.