Wes Brown backs Roy Keane after ex United captain accused of bullying by former staffer 

Former Manchester United defender Wes Brown has come to the defense of his captain, Roy Keane, after he was accused of bullying one of the staffers during his time at Old Trafford.

Keane: staffers were a bit cocky

Rod Thornley, a former physio, who spent almost 20 years with the club has put Keane in the crosshairs, accusing him of being a bully to him and other staffers during his time at Manchester United. “I witnessed him (Keane) bully people many times,” claimed Thornley on The Busby Way podcast.

The accusation comes after Keane had a go at some of the people who worked behind the scenes during his 13 seasons as a Red Devil. A few months ago Keane was on his podcast The Overlap with Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Jill Scott and Ian Wright and the star studded crew had a laugh at Keane´s stories about staffers being a bit too “cocky.”

“What used to annoy me was the lads who used to do the massages, they’d get a bit cocky,” said Keane. “They settle into the club then they think they’re running the show, have got the music on and the team wins something, and all the masseurs would be on the pitch – just relax lads.” Keane continued, “Then they’d be wearing their headphones as if they were players, coming off the bus and you’re thinking, just relax, oh my god.”

Brown jumps to captains defense

Thornley claims that there was backlash after the podcast came out, and accused Keane of attacking him personally.“All the thing s he said were just bulls***, just aimed at trying to hurt me. I then got abused online massively and it affected me mentally. It just was f***ing horrible. It’s typical of him – bullying someone. That’s what Roy Keane’s about a lot of the time.”

One of Keane’s teammates, Wes Brown has leapt to the defense of his former captain, saying Roy is going to be Roy, and that he sometimes came under fire with Keane while they shared a dressing room for nearly a decade. “He is not a bully. That’s Roy Keane. Simple as that. He says it how it is,” Brown told SunSport. “And you can like it or not like it. He says horrible things about me as well, but I don’t want to be personal. Keano is Keano. He’s still my captain.”

Keane was captained Manchester United from 1997 until 2001. His first year as captain was the year that Brown made his debut under Alex Ferguson and they would go on to win four league titles and two FA Cups together.

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