During the recent installment of Stick to Football, Roy Keane found himself in a moment of unexpected embarrassment when his phone rang, leaving him visibly frustrated, much to the delight of his fellow hosts.

The former captain of Manchester United, known for his past stern rebuke of a journalist whose phone disrupted a press conference, ironically caused a similar interruption during a conversation with guest Ashley Cole.

As the ex-Chelsea defender was recounting, “We had the occasional chance to come and train,” the studio was suddenly filled with alarmed shouts as Keane’s phone began to ring.

Keane, visibly chagrined, admitted, “I’m furious about that. It really bothers me. My phone is always on silent!”

Reflecting on the infamous press conference when he admonished a journalist to “turn his phone off” while managing Ipswich Town, the 54-year-old shared, “I covered an Ipswich match for Sky last year, and the guy whose phone had rung came over to apologize to me.”

Roy Keane was left ‘raging’ after his phone went off during the latest episode of Stick to Football, much to the amusement of his co-hosts

Keane continued, “I asked him why he didn’t turn it off back then, and he replied, ‘I was nervous, didn’t know what to do.’ But he did apologize.”

Keane’s phone-related blunder comes just days after he was sensationally tipped for the Man United job by his former team-mates Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes. 

Speaking on his The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast with comedian Paddy McGuinness, Butt admitted he ‘can’t fathom’ the fact that United have never reached out to Keane about the possibility of taking over the club, even on an interim basis. 

The Red Devils have employed an array of managers since the great Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure with David Moyes, Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal amongst the bosses who have tried and failed to bring success back to Old Trafford.

Yet for Butt, the man who could turn United’s fortunes around might be right on the club’s doorstep. 

‘Do you know what I can’t get my head around,’ the former England midfielder began. ‘Why Roy Keane has never got a chance at Man United. 

‘I know he’s a mate, so it’s a bit biased, but if you look at his personality and his playing career there, his character, and what he did in his managerial career – he did unbelievably for Sunderland. 

‘If you look at all the troubles they’ve had, and he still lives locally, I can’t for the life of me fathom how nobody has sat down with him and had a conversation and said, “would you be interested in the job?”

Keane famously snapped at a reporter who failed to turn his phone off during a press conference back in his Ipswich Town days

‘Even as an assistant. You look what he did with Martin O’Neil, you could’ve given David Moyes a Roy. I just think when it’s been going bad, if they’d got Roy in, Roy is a very astute person, he’s a very clever bloke. He’d then go and get a really good coach in to do the stuff that he might think he’s not the best at, because I think Roy is very much a Sir Alex Ferguson manager.

‘He’s a manager, he manages people. He comes alive on match days. He tells people what to do, he looks at it. He’d go and get some, whatever his flaws, he’s not too big to think, well I need this and I need that and I’ll go and get it.’ 

Keane has been out of management since leaving his role as an assistant coach of the Republic of Ireland national team in November 2018. 

Before that he’d enjoyed stints as head coach of Ipswich Town and Sunderland, who he helped to the Premier League in 2007.