Football
Keane Vs. Wright: Transcript of heated argument
Roy Keane and Ian Wright argued over England’s World Cup campaign after their semi-final exit.
England were beaten 2-1 by Croatia after extra-time on Wednesday to bring to an end their memorable World Cup run in Russia. Read 16 Conclusions on the game, as well as our player ratings.
After the game, Keane accused Wright and Gary Neville of “planning the final, where the parades were”.
The pair then engaged in an argument live on ITV Sport, the full transcript of which is below.
RK: “Yesterday and today, we were talking about England. The whole talk about the final, France. You have to focus on just one game, but everyone was talking about the final. The football’s coming home.
IW: “We wasn’t talking about the final, we were just having a laugh. The fact is that we were happy. You weren’t happy for us.”
RK: “I don’t mind you being happy but you were getting carried away. You were planning the final, where the parades were.
IW: “No we weren’t.”
RK: You need a reality check.”
IW: “Why shouldn’t we get excited about it? It’s something to get excited about.
RK: “But get excited when you get to the final.”
IW: People weren’t even expecting us to get to the semi-final, why couldn’t we have got excited about being in there (final)?”
RK: “Just take it one game as it comes. Take it a game at a time. You’ve no idea what it’s like to get to a finals, or even get to a World Cup. You’ve never been to a World Cup finals.”
To which Wright’s response was to simply mock Keane’s pronunciation of the word “final”. Which is quite something.
At this point, Keane simply replied: “You know what I’m talking about. You’ve embarrassed yourself.”
Wright then stopped, and added: “He’s going to cane me again.”